Winter 1997 Newsletter
Winter 1997 Newsletter
Hello, again, from the Tarheel state. The staff and employees of the Neuse River Bridge are proud of the 1997 season. We have overcome the delays and damages caused by the 1996 hurricane season and put on our helmets and gotten back into the game. The drilled shaft program was the main focus at the start of the project, and with a slow start in 1996, it remained on the critical path through the middle of 1997. With a lot of hard work and dedicated employees, we have a light at the end of the tunnel with having completed 466 of 547 drilled shafts. The drilled shaft crews had a record week in November by completing 13 drilled shafts in five working days. All water based drilled shafts are scheduled to be completed the middle of February 1998. The to-date quantities for the rest of the structure are as follows: Footings (72 of 91) 11,716 of 12,825 M3 concrete; Columns (80 of 141) 4,628 of 6,049 M3 concrete; Caps (68 of 141)) 3,688 of 7,732 M3 concrete. The caps remain on the critical path and will effect production of the structural steel and the superstructure. In 1996 and the early part of 1997, structural steel beams were another hot item on the critical path. With the addition of an experienced Structural Steel Superintendent to the staff, structural steel beams have virtually been removed off the critical path. The structural steel crew set a job record in November by setting 395 MT of steel in five working days. There has been 5,049 MT out of 11,595 MT set to date. The decks remain on the critical path with only 38 of 217 pours completed to date. This accounts for 3,811 M3 out of 29,586 M3 of deck concrete poured to date. All the decks are light weight concrete except the decks on main bridge trestle which were changed to normal weight concrete under a VECP proposal. Almost all the deck concrete has been placed with a crane and bucket. We will attempt to pump concrete again when we get to the decks on the trestle. We have until March 17, 1998, to complete BA over DC flyover. The fills are almost to grade and both end bents are in place. The structural steel was set at the end of 1997 and paving will take place in early 1998. The concrete batch plant has produced 41,178 M3 out of 55,229 M3 of substructure concrete, and 3,811 M3 out of 29,586 M3 of superstructure concrete. The plant has had very little concrete rejected by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, due to Traylor Bros.’s dedicated Quality Control Technicians and Batch Plant staff. With dedicated and safe work habits, the staff and employees on the Neuse River Bridge will have another winning season in 1998.
Construction of the new $55 million William Natcher Bridge over the
Ohio River near Owensboro, Kentucky, has begun. This bridge is the second
cable stayed bridge that Traylor Bros. has underway for the Commonwealth of Kentucky
Transportation Cabinet. Mid-December saw the commencement of clearing and
grubbing, as well as subsurface exploratory boring on land. Drilled shaft
operations will begin in January, as well as construction of marine facilities
on the Kentucky bank. We are looking forward to a mild, dry winter to accommodate
all the staff moving in from southern climates and to help give Traylor
Bros. a successful start-up on the latest Ohio River crossing.
Off to a quick start, the Sailboat Bridge Team is starting up production in scenic Grove, Oklahoma, on the Grand Lake O’ the Cherokee. We will be precasting 350 typical segments, 58 pier and expansion joint segments, and 48 footers in a 12-month period. Erection of the first segmental bridge begins November 1998 and will be complete with traffic switch by April 1, 1999. The erection of the second bridge will follow soon after with completion of the contract occurring in early spring of the year 2000, ahead of the three year contract time.
Imagine yourself driving to work. On your right is the Tijuana River,
to your left (only 300 yards away) is the Mexican border, and a mile ahead
are the sandy beaches of the Pacific. Several Border Patrol vehicles whiz
past you as you pull into the Traylor/Obayashi construction yard. It’s
the middle of the day and the warm San Diego sun is burning down on you.
(But not for long!) You are late, so you hurry into what is lovingly called
the "Dry House." You quickly throw on a dirty T-shirt, some jeans,
and your rubber boots, you grab your tools and hard-hat, and you head outside
to meet up with the rest of the crew before heading down into the "Hole."
Since it’s Monday, the "walking boss" for your shift addresses
the group with some important safety tips and pumps you up for the week
ahead during your toolbox meeting. Everyone is present, including the shifter
and his segment erection crew, the grout man, the TBM operator, an electrician,
a mechanic, the shaft crew, the toplander, the crane operator, the inspector,
and the heading engineer. You are ready. The crew strolls over to the shaft,
packs into the elevator, and begins their 200 foot descent. At the shaft’s
bottom, you quickly transfer into the "mantrip" and begin the
two mile long rail journey into the depths of the earth, with the ocean
floor only 100 ft above. Man was never meant to be here, but you are. The
trip is relatively soothing. With your earplugs in, the repetitive sound
the train makes as it passes over the railroad tracks is somewhat relaxing.
But the fifteen minute ride is over quicker than you thought, and it’s
time to go to work. The train pulls to a stop at the back of the tunnel
boring machine’s "trailing gear." You crawl up the side of the
trailing gear and take over for the crew that is just finishing up their
shift. A virtually seamless transition takes place as one crew comes and
the other crew goes. Little, if any, production is lost during the shift
change. This shift begins with the tunnel boring machine (TBM) starting
it’s "shove." It takes twenty minutes for the TBM to shove out
about four feet, and during that time you make sure that all of the segmental
concrete tunnel liners are prepped for installation. The TBM operator yells
"OK!" when the shove is complete and the segment erection crew
quickly goes to work. You have four 4,000 lb. concrete segments and one
smaller keyway to install in order to complete a ring of tunnel liner.
Each ring is essentially a 4 ft long cylinder with an 11ft inner-diameter.
The rings are progressively fitted against one another, producing the long
straight tube that is our tunnel. The first ring this shift is erected
in twenty-five minutes. That’s pretty fast, and if the crew can keep that
up all day, they’ll get nine, ten, or even eleven rings. The record is
eleven rings in one shift, and 29 rings in one day. We are always striving
to better ourselves, and one day we know those records will fall. This
particular shift went well, but a problem with the main-bearing grease
system slowed us for a while. An honest eight rings were installed on your
shift today. With no real time for a break, you are exhausted, dirty, and
are ready to go home after eight hours of hard work. When relief arrives
with the shift change, you hop back on the mantrip and return out of the
tunnel just the way you came in. Everyone seems proud of their hard days
work, and to celebrate your buddies have a beer waiting for you under a
willow tree just off the jobsite. Each day nearly one hundred people go
to work for Traylor/Obyashi on the South Bay Ocean Outfall. Each individual
contributes in his or her own way to the production that day, that week,
or that month. To date, nearly two-thirds of the four mile long tunnel
has been mined through geological conditions that few tunnelers have ever
faced. The entire crew on the South Bay Ocean Outfall should be commended
for the hard work and dedication given to such a complex and difficult
project. Here’s to a safe and speedy completion of our remaining seven
thousand feet of tunnel!
The Captain John was introduced into the Traylor Bros. equipment fleet
with the Beasley acquisition a few years ago. The tug was recently dry
docked at the Wickliffe facility to undergo an extensive refurbishment
and power increase. The engines were exchanged from 12V71N 368 hp to 12V71T1
510 hp each. The transmissions were rebuilt, new shafts constructed and
installed along with cutless bearings. The propellers were repitched to
accept the added horsepower. All rudder bushings were also replaced. With
the added horsepower, the cooling system was enlarged by adding channel
cooling on the exterior of the tug. The bottom of the tug was sandblasted
to bare metal, primed, painted and coated with anti-fouling paint. The
upper works were primed and painted. New gauges, controls, and radar were
added to the pilot house. The added horsepower should compliment the performance
of the tug and enable it to handle the fast current of various waterways.
Congratulations for a job well done to all who worked on the repairs and
refurbishment of the tug.
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