Downers: (3D Satellite, an office building)
The main location for American Bridge was in a new town named after it: Ambridge, PA. Those notes have some of the history of the company.
I remember, when we used to travel on the Indiana Toll Road in Northwestern Indiana, seeing a building with a big American Bridge sign on it. This street view shows that the sign no longer exists, but the office building, steel storage yards and fabrication buildings are still standing.
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| Street View |
The steel fabrication facility in Gary is now used by Industrial Steel Construction and Central Illinois Steel. The office building is labeled Professional Protection Corp. And the entrance on Bridge Street is labelled HarbisonWalker International.
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| Raymond Boothe posted American Bridge Company (a Division of USS)-Gary, Indiana-1912: Interior view of the bridge erection shop (IU collection/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair). Dennis DeBruler: That facility is still used for bridge fabrication. http://www.iscbridge.com/ |
Industrial Steel Construction (ISC) started in 1968 in Franklin Park as a small fabricator. But now they take advantage of this facility and do bridge fabrication. [ISC-history] They have been fabricating bridges since 1990. [ISC-projects]
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| ISC ISC, when size does matter... 1.6 million square feet under roof Ability to do complete assemblies indoors Transportation of large fabricated weldments by barge, rail or truck 300 experienced craft employees |
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| ISC [These are part of the arches for the I-74 Bridge over the Mississippi River. "Working with Lunda Construction, ISC is fabricating 20,000 tons of steel for west bound and east bound structures. Each bound consists of a basket handle arch with deck and approach plates girders. Each arch includes 30 arch rib boxes. Each approach has over 200 girders. Due to the size of the large component pieces on the arch, the fully assembled boxes are being shipped via barge." [ISC-I-74] 0:48 video] ISC Bridge Fabrication Housed in seven buildings 1.6 million square feet of under roof and overhead crane 160 acres of pre-staging and storage area State of the art bridge fabricating equipment 50,000 square feet of blast and paint bays |
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| ISC [I could not find this bridge in their project list.] Types of Bridges Plate Girder Wide Flange Truss Bridges Arch Bridges Trapezoidal Tub Girders Bascule Bridges Lift Spans Rail Road Bridges |
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| ISC Certifications NSBA Member AISC Member AISC Certification Category Certified Bridge Fabrication - Advanced, with a Fracture Critical endorsement and Sophisticated Paint endorsement |
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| ISC [Jane Byrne Interchange - Westbound Ramp] ISC is committed to: Working Safe Ensuring Quality Fabrication Delivering on Schedule |
They have the equipment to flatten plate between 0.5-12" thick so they offer this as a service for other companies as well. [ISC-flatten]
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| ISC-wellsburg "Working with Flatiron Corporation, ISC is fabricating approx. 4300 tons of steel for the main span and 1500 tons of steel for the approach spans both to be completed in 2020. The tied arch bridge sections consist of 22 tie chords, 31 floor beams, 2 End beams, 18 Arch ribs, 4 knuckles as well as several secondary members such as stringers, lateral braces etc. All pieces except the 4 knuckles will be shipped to site by truck. However, due to the size of the knuckles (137,000 Lbs., 20’ high, 30’ long, 8’ wide), these components were shipped via Barge. ISC performed a full progressive assembly for the tied-arch bridge at its 1.6 million sq. ft. facility under roof located in Gary, In, to ensure a proper fit-up at the site. ISC also played a critical role in the early design stages of this design build project, providing vital information pertaining to steel fabrication, inspection, acceptable tolerances, shipping logistics etc to minimize steel manufacturing and overall project costs." |
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| ISC-Huey-long "Located in New Orleans, LA, The Huey P. Long Bridge is a cantilever truss bridge that spans the Mississippi River. This was a widening project designed by Modjeski and Masters for the already existing rail and highway traffic bridge, in which the existing two 9-foot traffic lanes were increased to three 11-foot traffic lanes with 2-feet of inside shoulder and 8 feet of outside shoulder. The bridge spans the river for a total of 2,380 feet and added an additional 22,000 tons of steel to the existing bridge. To date, it is one of the largest construction projects ever completed in Louisiana’s history." |
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| ISC-amelia "Located in Atchison, KS, The Amelia Earhart Memorial Bridge spans the Missouri River on U.S. Route 59 between Atchison, Kansas and Buchanan County, Missouri. The bridge was built to replacing the existing bridge, which was in use for 74 years and located only 78 feet north of the new bridge. The new tied-arch bridge is a four lane highway that spans approximately 2,546 feet. Using 625 tons of steel, this bridge was designed by HNTB with a 100-year design life and capable of handling 12,400 vehicles per day." |
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| K.C. Willis posted Construction/Fabrication of the Chicago Picasso - USS American Bridge, Gary, Indiana, 1966. Larry Lancaster: My dad worked at American bridge worked on some of that. Chad Roman: Larry Lancaster so did my grandfather. He was a crane operator at AB and always talked about how this was the most difficult job he worked on. Jon Hart: Looks like American Bridge standard falsework pieces used for temporary support. Aaron Carlson My father had a story about this week. His company was hired to move the Picasso from US Steel to Daley Plaza. They moved the sculpture from Gary to their warehouse in Cicero on the Thursday before, and would be moving it downtown on Saturday, under wraps, and installing it for its unveiling on Tuesday, August 15, 1967. The warehouse had an overhead crane that ran along two beams near the ceiling, at about 48 feet off the ground. Unfortunately, the Picasso is 50 feet tall, and on Friday evening, they smacked it with the crane, and broke it. Now being metal workers, this wasn’t too upsetting. They fired up their oxyacetylene torch, and welded it back together. Ten minutes later, as the weld was cooling, he heard a “ping” from the sculpture, and heard his weld slide down the angled base and fall onto the floor. “That’s weird,” he said, and welded it again with a different type of rod. Ten minutes later, ping, and it slides to the floor. One more try, with a special rod that had a resin inside to make it stick. Ten minutes later, ping, and now everyone is getting very worried. The Picasso is being moved the next morning, and it’s noticeably broken. They call US Steel. But it’s Friday night in 1967, and there is no one there to take a call until Monday. They have a phone number to call in case of an emergency, and after a series of phone calls, he finds himself talking to Pablo Picasso. He explains the situation, Picasso says three words and hangs up. Now they go back to the sculpture, and weld it back together with no problem. US Steel had fabricated the sculpture from a relatively new product, that needed to be welded in a special way. No one was ever the wiser, because Picasso never said anything beyond those three words he spoke into the phone after being woken up at two in the morning in Portugal. What were the three words? “Corten steel, asshole.” The next time you’re in Daley plaza, walk around to the back of the Picasso. There’s a weld where the vertical back plate meets the slanted base. You notice how that weld is much thicker than it is in this photo? That’s the one! |
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