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62 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, July 1, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 11, 2004 The second span of the new Rogue River bridge is being built 25 feet upstream of where it will eventually rest. Once work is done on the span, it will be moved by hydraulic jacks into the space now occupied by the Depot Street Bridge. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven One bridge ‘to go’ Builder designs it to be moved into place By SANNE SPECHT Mail Tribune ROGUE RIVER — What weighs 550 tons, is currently being built in the "wrong" location, and will be moved 25 feet downstream after construction using never-before-tried engineering technology? A large section of the new Rogue River bridge. "This has never been done before," said project manager Paul Hogan of Dale Evans and Associates. "I’ve heard we’re going to be on TV (Discovery Channel) when this finally happens." Demands from the community helped ensure the $10 million project was specifically engineered to avoid a lengthy bridge closure. Allowing the 50-year-old Depot Street Bridge to remain open while constructing the new bridge pleased residents, but created quite a design challenge, Hogan said. "If we could have built the bridge where the Depot Street Bridge currently is, it would have been easy," he said. "But that would have created a year to a year-and-a-half closure." Instead, the bridge is being constructed in spans that are offset from one another. Span I goes from Highway 99 to Coyote Evans Park and is being built at the intended completed alignment. Advertisement But Span II will be moved once the old bridge is gone. "Because the existing bridge is in the way by approximately 30 feet, we’re building Span II 25 feet upriver from where it belongs," said Hogan. Work on the 300-foot-long, tied-arch bridge has already caused considerable interest and comment in Rogue River. But nothing fascinates the locals and the engineers more than how the bridge will be moved into place once it’s been built. "At first, the local denizens were concerned our work bridge was the final product," said Hogan. "They said we’d end up with our bridge being nothing more than a beaver dam because it was too close to the water." Dire warnings of poor construction and flooding were hastily assuaged by the project manager as people tried to figure out the complex engineering on the bridge. They may understand the engineering plan, but some still question the design and the value of the bridge. Jim Roper, manager of Ben Franklin Sporting Goods in Rogue River, said he’s not thrilled with the project’s design or convinced it was necessary. "I think it should be in L.A." he said. "I don’t like progress. It should have stayed the old way." Roper’s friend, Dale Shamblin, said he "begged to differ." "I think the new bridge will look nice," he said. But both remained skeptical that the bridge’s two 12-foot-wide travel lanes and 8-foot-wide pedestrian walkway would solve problems with increasing traffic flow in the area. Hogan said the community should be assured it will end up with an aesthetically appealing and technically sound bridge. The bridge’s high arching design will "dominate the skyline," he said. "You’re going to see a real mind-bender as you drive down I-5," he said. And, he said, naysayers should remember the new bridge is needed because the old one is cracked. "It’s cracked on the approach spans," he said. "And I see overloads going across this bridge every day." Once the second span is completed and can stand on its own, Hogan says a lane-shifting traffic pattern will be set up to negotiate traffic across the offset bridge. Since there were no takers on the $2 million pricetag for the Depot Street Bridge, the old bridge will be quickly dismantled and removed. The last footing and tie will be added to the project and then the tricky part begins, Hogan says — lateral jacking of the huge bridge section. "We jack bridges up and down all the time to do deck repairs and steel replacement," said Hogan. "But the horizontal jacking is what’s different. This has never been done before." It is going to entail closing the bridge for five days while the whole 550-ton section is lifted one-half inch and temporary bearings are replaced with a roller system. Then hydraulic jacks will be installed along the entire 300-foot length of the bridge and it will be moved into its final location. "At this point dead weight is holding the free section of the bridge into place," said Hogan. "By applying increasing and decreasing pressure to the rollers (with the jacks), we’ll move it into place downstream." The pressure has to be applied equally throughout the whole length of the bridge, Hogan said. The disproportional pressure changes are what will move the section into place. Hogan said the new bridge has been tough to engineer and build. "The design concept alone took in excess of a year — maybe even two or three," he said. "There has been a lot of reinforcement steel needed and a lot of intense labor has gone into this project." Since this sort of project has never been done before, Hogan had only one word to answer the question of how he knew it would work. "Mathematics," he said. And, if it doesn’t? "Well, you start over again," he said. Reach reporter Sanne Specht at 776-4497 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. 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