Biloxi Bay Bridges at Ocean Springs, MS

CSX/L&N: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

1962 US-90: (destroyed by Huricane Katrina in Aug 2005)

2008 US-90: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

Redeker Rail Video & Photography posted
Bucket List shot of the week. While working the Mississippi Gulf Coast & practicing my social distancing this week I was finally able to get the shot of a CSX train on the Biloxi Bay Bridge! Here we see Tran Q601 crossing the Biloxi Bay on April 1st 2020..

Terry Redeker shared

3D Satellite

At first, I thought Street View still had photos from the old bridge. But I guess they really did build with some nice looking railings in the new bridge.

Street View, Jun 2019

Street View, May 2019

Street View, Jun 2015

Street View

Jordan Douglass Barclay posted
L&N train crossing back bay Ocean Springs Mississippi dated 1901. From the Library of Congress collection

The Bridge Destroyed by Katrina

OceanSpringArchives

Pre-opening 1962

(Courtesy of Elaine Ryan Miller)

OceanSpringArchives
[It looks like the drawbridge was the Chicago trunnion style.]

Hurricane Camille 1969

     After Hurricane Camille in August 1969, the L&N Railroad commenced a passenger shuttle service between Pascagoula and Gulfport to alleviate automobile traffic resulting from the damage to the US Highway 90 Bridge across the Bay of Biloxi.  There were passenger stops at Ocean Springs, Biloxi, Keesler AFB, Beauvoir, and Mississippi City.  The cost was $.50 per trip.  The temporary rail service was terminated on September 19, 1969, after bridge traffic commenced on US 90 across Biloxi Bay.(The Ocean Springs Record, September 11, 1969, p. 1 and September 25, 1969, p.1)

OceanSpringArchives
[It did not survive Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Did they have the drawbridge leaves raised during the hurricane? I would think that would make them function as sails and would be worse than leaving them down.]

The Replacement Bridge

DanBrownAssociates
[This was too technical for me to understand most of what this page said about exploratory and test piles. But I did learn that they do test for sideways (lateral) forces as well as downward (axial) forces.]

Shane Strickland posted
Biloxi Bay Bridge 2007
Shane Strickland It was a joint venture. Massman Kiewit TraylorShane Strickland Kiewitt 888 just outa re-man. Sweet sweet rig! It was my first hydro!!

Civil Engineering, July 2009

I was thinking that wind and waves determined the required lateral force resistance. But vessel collisions are a larger source of lateral forces. If I read the article correctly, the lateral forces, not the axial forces, determine the size and number of piles that are needed on a pier's footing. The pile testing done by Don Brown was performed during the bidding process so that the design/build team had the data they needed to do their jobs as soon as they got the proceed notice.

The spans in the old bridge that had their lower cord just a foot above the storm surge were the ones that got destroyed. The waves from the storm pushed them off the piers. So the new bridge has a steep 6% grade at each end to quickly get the spans significantly above the storm surge of a 100-year storm. (Katrina was considered a 100-year storm. So the designers are assuming that climate warming won't create a 100-year storm every 10 years.) For they spans at the end of the bridge that are not above the wave action, they added 18" keys on top of the piers between the girders. These keys will help hold the spans on the piers during a storm.

[CivilEngineering]

Three of the photos on WGKengineers are below. The design-build method, a relatively new concept for MDOT, was used to finish the $339m project within two years. We have seen for other bridges that the environmental studies alone take a few years. The CSX bridge was also destroyed by Katrina. From what I saw in some photos, I first thought steel girders were used. But it turns out the girders are colored precast concrete.

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The bridge is 1.6 miles long, and it is designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. [PCIgulf]

The navigation span is 250' wide with a clearance of 95'. [Traylor] But the required horizontal navigational clearance was only 150'. [CivilEngineering] So why did they overbuild by so much?

Lee Simmons posted four photos with the comment: "4600 Ringer on the Broadway st. Bridge job in Little Rock Arkansas for Massman construction..... Set up for 700 tons... Last time I ran this crane was in New Orleans on the Corps of Engineers seawall job.... I've missed this old girl !!!! Smooth like butter !!!!!"
[Massman Construction was the contractor for this project.]
Lee Simmons This is the 4600 that was in Biloxi for a while then went to New orleans for the Seawall and the Huey P. LONG bridge !!!!
Maggie Bryan-Retta Yeah I remember biloxi . great BBQ on that barge and it came to the Huey right before I went to chalmette.

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Fred Hudgens provided these two photos on a post and the comment: "Massman construction 4600s3 ringer 600 ton capacity 220 ft of boom .mounted on a barge."
Keith Agerton Boy I spent a many a day working on that Rig Biloxi Bay bridge for Massman,Kiewit, Traylor JV think it was GC constructors
Fred Hudgens Triangle boom it's called heavy lift boom I will post the boom # Monday
Fred Hudgens As far as I know it's the only Manitowoc crane that uses it .
Ben Stalvey #37 boom is Triangle on a 4600 series 3
Ben Stalvey 80ft rear mast
Jay Wilson Triangle booms on the B-E machines were charged with air or gas, if they lost pressure, there was a crack.
Pat Peterson they use argon now to control rust on the inside.

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Chris Spence posted
30 ton floor beam. 4100 tappen zee bridge ny stretched out getting that Sunday $$ local 417
Shane Strickland I ran this crane on the Biloxi Bay Bridge around 10 years ago! Traylor Brothers right?

One of the advantages of construction work done in the 21st Century is that we can use Global Earth as a time machine. I left out quite a few of the images because there were a lot during which there was no change. And this is the first time I've seen more than one image in the same month. And it happened twice during the years of interest.

I chose this "before" image because it shows ships going through both bridges.

Jan 2005

Aug 2005 is when Katrina happened. Note that most of the bridge now looks like a "dotted line." That means most of the spans were just above the storm surge. Also note that both ends of the railroad bridge have been displaced downstream. The storm surge is more powerful at the end of the storm when it is flowing back out to the ocean. I started including the bridge over the CSX track in the upper-right corner because that was part of the reconstruction contract.

Aug 2005

 The railroad bridge is repaired. They are not even cleaning up debris for the US-90 bridge.

Mar 2006

 What is the "white stripe" downstream of the bridge?

Feb 2007

 Now they have cleaned up most of the debris.

May 2007

 Is that white stripe a sandbar that comes and goes as the tide changes?

Aug 2007

 I can't believe the progress they made in a fraction of a month.

AugA 2007

This looks like a repeat of the above image to me. I've clicked through the timeline several times and I believe I have captured the dates correctly.

Sep 2007

 The initial lanes are done and they have started on the second 1.6 mile bridge.

SepA 2007

 After four images in two months, we skip a year until the next image. It looks like it is done.

Sep 2008

 I include the next available "done" image because it doesn't have the clouds.

Jan 2010

Massman's project web page contains five photos with the comment:

This award winning design-build project for the Mississippi Department of Transportation consisted of removing and replacing the U.S. Highway 90 Bridge across Biloxi Bay, which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The project included the design and construction of a 1.6-mile-long divided bridge, providing 6 lanes of traffic across the bay on a nearly parallel alignment to the old bridge. Work included the demolition and removal of the existing bridge and roadway debris. It also included the demolition and replacement of an 800-foot long bridge over the CSX Transportation Railroad and associated embankment, roadway and electrical items. In addition to the bridge scope, the project included reconstruction of the foreshore protection along the bay's shore.

This project required the use of 20 floating cranes, 6 land based cranes and an average of 240 personnel working six days a week. This large equipment fleet was mobilized quickly because the majority of equipment was owned by the joint venture partners, with much of it in the gulf coast region. The work included driving 105,000 feet of concrete piling, installing 10 million pounds of reinforcing steel, erecting 90,000 feet of precast concrete girders and placing 72,000 cubic yards of structural concrete. Waterline footings required sealing of footing forms around driven piles and dewatering of the forms to place concrete footings.

In only 17 months after contract award, soil borings, geotechnical design, bridge design, all permitting, test pile program, access dredging and complete construction of one of the bridges across the bay was complete. The project team achieved a very aggressive schedule and completed the project 45 days early. Completion of the second bridge and all associated work for final acceptance was completed just 22 months after contract award. The utilization of resources by the joint venture partners and the partnering relationship with MDOT and FHWA made this possible. 

Project Awards:

2008 America's Transportation Awards - Large Project - Innovative Management

2008 Federal Highway Administration Award of Excellence - Project Management 

2008 Construction Management Association of America Project Achievement Award

2009 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Engineering Excellence Award National Finalist

2009 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Engineering Excellence Honor Award

2009 American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Structural Systems Honor Award

2011 Precast/Pre-stressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Award - Transportation for Main Spans Greater than 150 feet

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Massman Construction Co. posted five photos with the comment:

After being destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Highway 90 Bridge across Biloxi Bay was rebuilt by a Massman-led joint venture.

The award-winning design-build project for the

Mississippi Department of Transportation

included the design and construction of a six-lane, 1.6-mile bridge across the bay that served as a vital artery for the local and regional communities.

The project required 20 floating cranes and six land-based cranes, as well as an average of 240 people working six days a week to rebuild the destroyed bridge.

The team achieved a very aggressive schedule and completed the project 45 days early, with final acceptance just 22 months after contract award. The project’s success was grounded in the strong partnering relationship with MDOT and the

Federal Highway Administration

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Kiewit Corporation

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Traylor Bros., Inc.

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Parsons Corporation

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Associated General Contractors of America

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Design-Build Institute of America

#BiloxiBayBridges #BiloxiBay #marineconstruction #infrastructure #MDOT #floatingcrane #hurricanekatrina

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A time lapse video of a tow going through the "very challenging" swing span running "the loop" "The loop" is coming down the Mississippi, going across the Gulf, and then going back north using the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

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