Posen CONSTRUCTION

Traffic along one of the Motor City's most heavily-trafficked routes is flowing freely once again, and drivers can thank Posen Construction for making it happen. Piers below a roughly 8,600 foot-long portion of Interstate 75 that passes over the Rouge River southwest of Detroit had become damaged and worn due to years of heavy traffic, bad weather and deterioration. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) determined that in order to keep the bridge in working order, and maintain a major artery to and from one of the Midwest's largest metropolitan areas, replacement of the damaged infrastructure would be a necessity.
 

Michigan-based Posen Construction was chosen to perform the pier rehabilitation phase of the $7.1 million project, which also included lighting upgrades and other improvements. Led by project manager Blake Zapczynski, the contractor required a means to support the bridge during repair of 7 piers. The most heavily worn structure, labeled Pier 88, required total demolition and reconstruction. Posen turned to Baltimore, Maryland-based equipment provider Mabey Bridge & Shore, Inc. and their structural shoring systems to lend support. Mabey engineer Andy Wilkin and Product Specialist Jim Porecca worked with Posen to create custom-engineered design and layout using the equipment renter's Mabey Universal, Heavy Prop and Mass 50 systems. These plans were submitted to MDOT for approval and before long, Posen Construction was off an running.
 

MDOT's original plan called for the contractor to purchase their own steel and fabricate a propping solution for themselves. The propping would then need to be erected atop temporary H-piles which the contractor would drive into the ground beneath the bridge. Each step meant the acquisition of expensive materials and time-consuming deliveries and installations. By contrast, Mabey's modular shoring systems were delivered to the jobsite on standard flatbed trucks. The gear bolted together and required no custom fabrication. Most importantly, the towers eliminated the costly need to drive temporary H-piles. Once in place beneath the bridge, the towers were used to gently lift the structure off of each pier. Mabey's shoring systems are capable of supporting up to 490 kips per leg, so supporting the large bridge was well within the equipment's capabilities. With the structure now fully supported by the towers, all eight lanes of traffic were permitted to flow on the bridge above while Posen's foreman, Bill Tuite oversaw efforts to repair and rebuild the piers below. With pier construction concluding, Posen will utilize parts of the same propping equipment to form the concrete at the top of each bridge pier. Construction on the I-75 refurbishment is expected to conclude in November of 2010.