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Friday, October 27, 2000
Harbor Bridge to get fresh paint - $7 million worth
Work includes replacing pins and could take up to 2 years
By Guy H. Lawrence
Caller-Times
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State highway officials will be giving the Harbor Bridge a lift next month, preparing for a $7 million cleaning and paint job that may take as long as two years to complete.
Workers using hydraulic jacks will lift a section of the bridge to replace two 2 1/2 - foot pins that were installed 41 years ago and have since corroded, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.
The work, expected to last a week, should not require closure of the bridge, but the outside lanes may be closed, said Dan Stacks, assistant director of maintenance for the department.
Closing the outside lanes will slow traffic and decrease the load on the bridge while workers with the engineering company lift the bridge section high enough to remove the rocker joints that house the pins.
No date has been set for the work to begin.
"We have corrosion buildup on the pins (and) it's not allowing the movement it was designed to do," Stacks said. "If you (don't) have that movement of the structure, you develop stresses around the structures and you create some problems."
The rocker joints allow the bridge to move as temperature increases cause metal and concrete to expand, Stack said.
Corrosion buildup on the joints eventually leads to cracked concrete and the sheering of bolts that attach the concrete decks to the rocker joints, said Rubin Schultz, district maintenance supervisor for the department. Cracks in the concrete expose other metal parts to moisture and that in turn leads to rust, he said.
"Concrete can move several inches, and it can sheer off bolts," Schultz said.
The pin replacement was recommended in a study conducted by Brown and Root Inc. of Houston, said Becky Kureska, a spokeswoman for the transportation department.
The inspection was conducted in the spring to prepare the bridge for a massive $7 million paint job that will take 18 to 24 months to complete.
The work has not been scheduled.
The department has hired Gibson and Associates, a structural repair firm from Balch Springs, to repair the rocker joints for about $171,000, Stacks said.
Company officials were unavailable for comment.
The work will take place on the pier wall where the smaller deck supported simple truss spans above the Texas State Aquarium parking lot.
The work does not involve the bridge's main truss, which stretches 1,242 feet, Stacks said.
The Harbor Bridge, 5,817 feet long and 82 feet wide, was opened in 1959 at a cost of about $19 million.
Transportation officials estimate 47,000 drivers travel the bridge each day.
Schultz began working in the district in 1968, when the bridge was fairly new. This was the first time he could recall rocker joint pins being replaced and described the repairs as minor.
"It is a sturdy structure," Schultz said. "It is like a car. You constantly have to do the maintenance on it. It is a well-built structure."
Staff writer Guy H. Lawrence can be reached at 886-3792 or by e-mail _at lawrenceg@caller.com
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