I normally don't bother noting UCEB (Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridges), but this construction video is worth noting.
After some typical drone scenes of some tandem lifts, this scene shows how they unload a beam from a truck. The end of the beam has already been lifted off its trailer and swung over to the carriage that will take it across the temporary bridge. The right crane will unhook once that end is on the carriage, and the left crane will attach to the beam. We will see the barge tilt as it takes the weight off of the carriage. Not that 12 axles are required to carry the beam on the highways.
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| Facebook Reel |
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| rasmith The bridge replacement cost $135m. |
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| 511wi "Replacing the existing I-39/90/94 Wisconsin River bridges. One new bridge will be located to the east of the existing bridges and the other will be located at approximately the same location as the existing bridges." [Are they going from 6 lanes to 12 lanes? No. See below. The bridges will handle 8 lanes after a later project adds a fourth lane in each direction to the highway.] |
A satellite image caught the temporary bridge that was used to get the beams across the river. I don't know why I can't see a second crane for the tandem lifts of the beams.
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| Satellite |
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| acppubs "Nearly a quarter of the 60,000 average daily vehicles passing through the corridor are trucks. The traffic on the bridge increases dramatically — up to 75 percent during the summer months due to tourist traffic." |
This photo is old enough to catch a foundation pile drill.
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| acppubs "The new bridges will be 1,760 feet long, making them slightly longer than the existing bridges. They will also be wider at 80 feet. However, the bridges will remain three lanes when the project opens. Porter noted that WisDOT has a separate future project to widen the interstate to four lanes. When that occurs, the bridge will be restriped to accommodate a fourth lane." The riverbed has a highly variable rock profile. Some of the drilled shaft foundations went down 120' without achieving the design capacity. So they had to redesign the pier foundations. They also encountered artesian (underground water) pressure around some of the drilled shafts. That required additional foundation designs. Some of the new designs meant that they had to bring in new subcontractors and equipment. The nearby high-tension wires added another challenge. |
It looks like the old bridge used steel girders. The new one uses prestressed concrete girders.
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| Street View, Sep 2025 |
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