Foundation Drilling Expands to Lehigh River and Canal

Crews have moved the drilling rigs, cranes and other hardware to the banks of the Lehigh River and Canal and begun drilling the first of 19 foundation shafts for the piers that will support new northbound and southbound bridges over the scenic Carbon County waterways.

Work will continue as weather permits through the winter to drill the 9.5-foot diameter shafts to depths of up to 50 feet through sandstone and quartz beneath the banks and riverbed. Temporary rock causeways are in place to allow crews to access the pier shafts for the in-stream supports.

After reaching the required depth, the shafts will be filled with concrete to form the foundations for poured-in-place pier stems that will rise up to 100 feet above the river.

A dozen similar shafts were drilled in 2009 – the first full year of construction on the $102 million project – for the new twin bridges over the nearby Pohopoco Creek. As each foundation was completed, crews methodically assembled reinforcing steel cages and formwork and poured the cylindrical concrete stems for the northbound and southbound spans. “T” shaped pier “caps” finish each column. Pre-stressed concrete beams and reinforced concrete decks will then be constructed atop the piers.

Eight of the 12 column supports are now fully constructed for the Pohopoco Creek bridges.  Once the remaining piers are capped – work that is expected to be completed in late spring – crews will begin setting the first of 70 pre-stressed concrete deck beams atop the caps. The new bridges’ riding surfaces, or concrete decks, will then be built atop the beams.

In addition to the 12 piers, four north and south abutments (the end walls that connect the structures to the main line roadway) are nearing completion for the Pohopoco bridges.

North abutments also are under construction for the new Lehigh River and Canal crossings. Work on the southern abutments for those bridges will begin when excavation finishes on the rock wall above the river’s southern bank. Thousands of tons of rock already have been excavated and hauled since last July to expand the northbound shoulder. Northbound traffic has been shifted slightly to the east onto that expanded shoulder. The southbound lanes were then shifted to the east as well, providing a work area for construction of the tie-ins for the new bridges, which are being built on new alignments immediately upstream of the existing bridges.

Operations to scale-back the rock outcropping will continue in early February, when weekly 20 minute stoppages will resume and continue through much of 2010.

At the northern end of the Turnpike work zone, construction  continues on a retaining wall that will support the roadway where it shifts to the west to meet the new alignment approaching the new Pohopoco Creek Bridges.


General Traffic Impacts

• Periodic daytime and nighttime lane closures and brief daytime stoppages may occur on the Turnpike.
• Watch for slow moving construction vehicles entering and exiting the Turnpike.
• A long-term shoulder closure is in place on Route 248 westbound from Parryville to the existing overhead Turnpike bridge.
   
   

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