(
1928 Truss Bridge Hunter,
$68.2m Girder Bridge Hunter,
Historic Bridges,
John A. Weeks III,
http://www.champclarkbridge.com/,
Satellite)
(Update:
RoadTraffic-Technology article When completed, it is expected to be used by 4,000 vehicles/day. The height of the approaches will be increased to reduce closures due to flooding.)
Another through truss bridge is being lost, this time to a steel girder bridge.
John reports that the bridge is structurally sound and should last at least another 30 years. Evidently Missouri can afford to replace a bridge just because the lanes are too narrow. It seems Illinois can't afford to do anything. In 2005, it was repainted from green to grey. So Missouri can also afford to throw away paint.
More on this replacement bridge below.
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Photo by Steve Lombardi, May 2018
[The new bridge is upstream.] |
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Madison County ILGenWeb posted
Jan Hale Risser: Oh - that turn - I so remember (shudder) that turn. Scared me completely. |
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Missouri's Historic Highways posted
June 1952 Champ Clark Bridge Tolls |
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| "One of the spans collapsed during construction and had to be rebuilt." [Historic Bridges] "This photos was taken when the bridge was being constructed. The collapse was caused by faulty false work. One worker was killed in this collapse." [Jeremy Ruble in Bridge Hunter] |
On Bridge Hunter, Lisa included two photos with her comment: "First photo of the Champ Clark Bridge was taken after it collapsed on September 6th 1927. One man was killed, one was seriously injured and several narrowly escaped. The collapse of the bridge was due to faulty false work. Second photo of the bridge was taken five days before the bridge collapsed."
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History
This picture shows the span of the Champ Clark Bridge shortly before it fell in the river resulting in one fatality... Credit: Clay Logan and Ray Dolbeare |
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| Photo taken by Jeremy Ruble, License: Released into public domain |
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July 13, 2018 Newsletter
How many construction inspectors do you see in this picture? Look hard...you may have to squint! Doug Pettig with MoDOT and our photographer demonstrate just how monstrous crane is that lifts all the girders and other parts of the bridge into their places. There are a total of six Manitowoc 7000's in the world, and Massman Construction Co. owns two. The one at the Champ Clark Bridge was previously used on the Stan Musial Veteran's Memorial Bridge in St. Louis, and the other on the Christopher S. Bond Bridge in Kansas City.
[It is configured as a ringer crane. The girders it lifts are 140' long and weight 197,000 lbs.] |
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MoDOT Flickr
Here we have a pano out on the IL dock. So on both sides of the picture you are looking back onto the dock. Going from the left to the right of the picture you are turning to the right and looking downriver, then straight across the river, and then up river before returning to looking down the dock.
[By downloading the original resolution photo, 20960x3872, I was able to determine that the left crane is the 7000 ringer we saw above, the middle crane is a Manitowoc 999, and the right crane is a Manitowoc 2250.] |
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May 11, 2018 Newsletter
[The two forms are reusable. I wonder how they release the forms from the concrete after the concrete has set so that they can be lifted and moved to the next pier.] |
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May 11, 2018 Newsletter
This is an inside look at the column form and steel. Inspectors like Joe Smith, who provided this picture, have to climb down inside the form to check the spacing between the rebar cage and the form. "We need good spacing for the concrete to fill in around it," he explained. |
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MoDOT Flickr
An above view of Pier 2. We are in the middle of a pour in this picture. He have the shafts that are under the water set and drilled. He then lowered a rebar cage into the two shafts. Then we are coming through and placing concrete in the shaft. Directly below the bottom crane boom and above the red box you can see the top of the shaft. On the farthest left barge is the concrete pump and the two barges with the tugs are the concrete transports. The large buckets are loaded off the bank and barged over. Then the crane picks the bucket off the barge and workers unload the concrete into the pump truck. This then pumps the concrete through a pipe down into the shaft +80ft.
[The 999 is handling the concrete buckets and the 2250 has the foundation drill attachment. Both cranes are on spud barges. The tall, skinny brown pipes are shoved down into the river bed to anchor the barge for work. Obviously, they are pulled up before the barge is moved to a new work location such as the next pier.] |
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MoDOT Flickr
Here the girder has been lifted off the truck and is being carefully maneuvered by the crane to be placed out on the barge.
[Looking at the photos below, it appears that they assemble two girders as a unit on the barge before they lift it onto a pier and the falsework to reduce the amount of fabrication work that has to be done high over the water.] |
Champ Clark Bridge Replacement
posted three photos with the comment:
Construction on the Champ Clark Bridge hit a significant milestone today with the erection of the first structural steel girder sections.
When complete, the bridge will be made up of 68 steel girder sections, as well as 12 concrete girders. Together, these girders will support the bridge deck, which forms the road surface.
Congrats to Massman Construction Co.and the entire project team!
[2250 is on the left end, and the 7000 is in the middle. Note the 7000 is lifting more than half of the load. because it is a stronger crane.]
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Massman posted five photos when they got an award.
Pamela Rose
posted three photos with the comment: "
Mississippi at Louisiana Missouri." (
shared,
Facebooked)
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Massman Construction Co. posted
The new Champ Clark Bridge has won an America’s Transportation Awards regional award of excellence in the “Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium Project” category. The new Mississippi River crossing opened to traffic in August 2019 following the expedited delivery of the project via a design-build contracting model. Sponsored by AASHTO, AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the America’s Transportation Awards competition was created to showcase the tremendous projects delivered by state departments of transportation every year in order to tell the broader story on the importance of transportation. Now in its 13th year, the projects nominated in this competition are making communities stronger, the economy more efficient, and American quality of life better, all while utilizing the most innovative technology to get these projects done better and faster. Congratulations to the entire project team! |
Massman's project web page contains five photos with the comment:
The original Champ Clark Bridge on US 54 over the Mississippi River was built in 1928. Construction for the new bridge included four river piers, each founded on 11-foot 6-inch-diameter drilled shafts, with three land piers that incorporate 48-inch-diameter pipe pile foundations and columns. The five river spans utilize steel plate girders, and the approaches utilized precast concrete girders. We doubled the current bridge’s width with 12-foot lanes and 10-foot shoulders to address issues with oversized loads and to provide a safer river crossing.
The project included significant approach work on the Illinois side, reconstruction and raising of a critical levy, as well as the rehabilitation and expansion of the adjacent intersection on the Missouri side, which included drainage improvements and enhanced lighting.
By leveraging our extensive experience with very large diameter drilled shafts and major marine-based bridge projects, we produced a final design that reduced the number of shafts by 33 percent and utilized 12-foot-deep steel girders for the majority of this structure. Phased and early release design packages allowed for the majority of the river pier foundation work to be completed prior to the final design package being Issued for Construction.
Project Awards:
2020 Design Build Institute of America (DBIA) National Merit Award – Transportation Category
2020 Design Build Institute of America (DBIA) National Award of Excellence – Transportation Category
2020 Design Build Institute of America Mid-America Region (DBIA-MAR) Award (To be announced Nov 12)
2020 The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Awards Quality of Life/Community Development Award
2020 AGC of Missouri Keystone Award (Honorable Mention) - General Contractor/ Construction Manager/Prime Contractor - Transportation & Infrastructure
2019 MoDOT Outstanding Contractor of the Year Award (Civil Rights Compliance/DBE Training Symposium)
2018 Illinois Department of Transportation Above and Beyond Award (Project DBE and Workforce Diversity Goals)
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Massman Construction Co. posted four photos with the comment:
The Champ Clark Bridge project won the 2021 Grand Conceptor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Missouri. As a joint undertaking between Missouri Department of Transportation and Illinois Department of Transportation, the project was the first design-build project IDOT participated in, as well as the first time the design-build delivery method has been used to cross the Mississippi River in an eight-state region. As Massman’s subcontractor responsible for the design of the project, HNTB's efforts are receiving well-deserved recognition with this latest award.
Congrats to the project team!
[Design-build has been around for a while. But MDOT probably had to drag IDOT into that methodology kicking and screaming.]
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Mary Lindsay posted
The old and the new Champ Clark Bridge
Louisiana, Mo
[John Weeks indicates the height above water for the old bridge is 55'. I could not find a height for the new bridge. But it sure looks lower. But it must be an optical illusion because the I'm sure the height should be over 50'. I notice that the piers don't line up. I assume the navigation channel is wider for the new one. The old one was 405'. I couldn't find a figure for the new one.] |
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Mary Lindsay posted, cropped
The new Champ Clark Bridge |
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Mary Lindsay posted
A photo of the Champ Clark Bridge from Illinois in to Louisiana, Mo. |
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Anna Medows posted
New Bridge on hiway 54 connection from Louisiana, Mo to Illinois |
The construction web page contains a webcam with a time-laspe "button." It is interesting watching the seasons change and the ice appear.
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