Contract expected in spring, despite problems
Construction of the new Indian River Inlet Bridge hasn’t really gotten started yet, but the project just got bigger. Delaware Department of Transportation officials announced Saturday that the design for the bridge has been changed again, increasing in length from 1,400 feet to 2,600 feet, as the result of compaction problems with the bridge approaches.
Those approaches have already been constructed directly to the west of the existing bridge, leading up to an anticipated start of construction on the actual bridge span in mid-2007, but objections to the awarding of a design-build contract delayed that process this summer while legislators clarified the bid requirements.
While many drivers in the area have continued to note the apparent lack of progress on the project, the latest chapter in the saga has actually been going on right before their eyes for nearly two weeks, though few knew that the recent repaving activity in the area was the result of problems that have now resulted in yet another iteration of the bridge design.
DelDOT officials said last month that settlement of the approaches over the longer period would only benefit the project, but recent analysis of the actual compaction of the approaches indicated there were geotechnical issues that have now put the project onto yet another new track — the third design in the life of the project.
“Due to the types of soils in this area, compaction was required in advance to prevent settlement from occurring once the roadway was opened,” officials announced Oct. 26. “Projects with geotechnical issues such as this are difficult to predict, even though estimates are based on soil samples from the site,” they added.
“As of August 2007, approximately 60 percent of the consolidation of subsurface soils had been achieved; however, 95 percent is required,” officials said, noting a series of issues that had developed as a result:
• Based upon the consolidation rate, it would take an estimated seven years to achieve 95 percent consolidation.
• Wick drains are not performing properly. Excess pore water pressure is therefore not dissipating from the clay layer at the rate predicted.
• Current settlement has exceeded original predictions. Additional fill (more weight) would be needed to achieve the correct grade for the approaches to meet the proposed bridge elevation. This added weight would cause even more movement.
• Roadway embankments are drifting and leaning toward the west, and it has been difficult to estimate the magnitude of this problem.
• As result of the weight of the embankments and their unexpected westerly movement, nearby roads have been impacted, requiring Route 1 pavement repairs and Road 50A reconstruction.
• The permanent wall facings cannot be safely constructed while the soils continue moving.
DelDOT officials said the problems with the approaches had led to the decision to change the design plan for the bridge, just as the project has been reaching the bidding stage once again.
Bridge longer but construction period same
“Our recommendation is to build a longer bridge and remove a portion of the existing fill approaches,” officials announced Oct. 26. “By building a longer bridge we will significantly reduce the impact the consolidation problem is having on starting the bridge design build contract.”
The approaches to the bridge were to be used not only as access for vehicles to the overland segment of the completed structure but also in the construction of the bridge itself. DelDOT officials said that was a main reason why the shift in course is taking place now.
“The bridge construction had assumed the availability of these approaches as an access way to building the structure from either side of the inlet,” they said. “If these access ways are consolidating at an unpredictable rate, require more fill material and take several years to achieve final grades, the bridge construction will be at risk due to these issues.”
The bottom line, as announced last weekend: “The best way to move forward with the bridge construction and a more timely completion is to increase the length of the structure.”
Under the new bridge design, the overall length of the bridge will increase to nearly twice its original planned length, jumping 1,200 feet from 1,400 feet to 2,600 feet. The clear span over the inlet is planned to be 900 feet long — to accommodate a possible future widening of the inlet to 800 feet — plus 1,700 feet of overland length.
The capacity and function of the bridge will not change, officials noted. The minimum vertical clearance will remain at 45 feet over the navigational portion of the inlet. The bridge width will remain the same, with two 12-foot lanes, a 4-foot interior shoulder, a 10-foot exterior shoulder in each direction and one 12-foot wide sidewalk accessed from the east side of the bridge.
The reduced embankment limits, DelDOT said, will result in the elimination of the massive wall surface areas and will even provide a more open view between the bay side and the ocean side.
Officials pointed to the William V. Roth Jr. Bridge (formerly the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge) near Wilmington as an example of how this new design – with the extended bridge over land – might look.
DelDOT said the actual construction of the new design will not take any longer than previously planned, because the contractor could work on the main span simultaneously with the longer overland sections.
Latest surveys show bridge still safe
That should be good news for those who have grown increasingly concerned with the delayed timetable for the project as the safe life of the existing Indian River Inlet Bridge continues to wane.
DelDOT officials on Oct. 26 acknowledged a previous report that predicted the bridge’s lifespan would end as soon as 2008 — the year now scheduled for the start of construction on its replacement — but they discounted that report’s relevancy to ongoing plans for construction of the new bridge.
“This document was prepared in 2005, based on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inlet depth data from 1938 to 1999,” they emphasized. “In general, many factors come into play in trying to predict how the scour will propagate, including frequency and severity of storm events, which may cause actual results to vary.
“At the time this document was developed, this simplistic approach was provided to gauge an approximate service life for the existing bridge and how it compared with the completion date of the bridge,” they added. “We do not believe this information is an accurate compilation of what is now occurring in the inlet, and, more importantly, since 1999, we have undertaken a variety of measures to monitor the bridge.”
DelDOT officials this week cited additional structural expertise procured recently to review the current situation and to further evaluate the slope stability of the existing streambed and riprap protection.
They also pointed to ongoing regular inspections of the bridge, the recent installation with the University of Delaware of tilt sensors on the piers of the bridge, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ periodic bathymetric surveys and land survey equipment used to monitor the existing bridge on a monthly basis.
DelDOT continues to insist that the existing bridge is safe, though it does need to be replaced. “However,” they said, “the existing bridge is in no immediate danger of failing, and in fact it is the most monitored bridge in the state.
The bridge deck is made up of five spans of steel girder beams, each approximately 250 feet long. Officials said this is considered a redundant system (not fracture-critical), meaning that if one span failed, other spans would be able to carry the load, allowing the bridge to remain standing.
In the department’s most recent bridge inspection in August, the deck and superstructure were rated in fair and satisfactory condition. More significantly, they said, a yearly dive inspection of piers under the water, done in September, showed the piers are stable and that the rip-rap placed to protect them in 1989 is intact.
“The public can be assured that if a natural disaster or other event were to occur, we would immediately inspect the bridge to ensure it is stable,” officials said. “If it were a danger to travelers, we would not hesitate to close it.
The new bridge sensors are designed to offer the department added confirmation that the bridge piers are stable, they noted. Should any change occur, the sensors would provide DelDOT an opportunity to promptly respond, they said.
Bidding process for new bridge under way again
A bid on the contract for the new bridge is now expected to be awarded in the spring of 2008, officials said, moving up that date from a fall 2008 mark that was given just last month as the details of a Request for Qualifications were finalized.
The RFQ was to be released early this week and will aim to narrow potential bidders down to a “short list” of as many as three qualified companies, which will then submit proposals.
DelDOT said the removal by the end of 2007 of most of the existing, leaning embankments — about 600 feet on each side — would eliminate uncertainties and risks to contractors associated with those approaches, which might have continued to move. As a result, they said, the potential for bids to be inflated is reduced and there is a better chance of a more timely completion of the bridge.
Still, the agency now estimates that the design-build of the new bridge structure will cost approximately $150 million — a $20 million increase over the previous estimate from the last procurement process, at $130 million. They said the increased cost is due to both inflation and the longer bridge length.
Cost has been a major hurdle for the project, resulting in the scrapping of the original cutting-edge, cable-stayed design for exceeding the planned budget of $150 million by nearly $50 million.
With the controversy over the second bid and ongoing shortfalls in the state’s transportation budget in subsequent years, the project has continued to be delayed, despite more than $70 million in federal funding obtained over the past five or six years, through the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA) and appropriations bills.
Responding to questions about whether funds are now available to meet the now-increased cost of this third bridge design, officials said the needed federal funds could come from a mixture of federal reallocations, additional earmark/discretionary funds and some releasing of unused funds in projects completed or almost complete.
“Given the high priority of this project,” they said, “we will work diligently to seek opportunities for additional bridge funds by 2011.” Indeed, 2011 is now the anticipated completion date for construction of the new bridge.
DelDOT officials on Oct. 26 said they were unable to comment on whether the project might reap any financial benefit to offset the added cost through asserting fault with the engineering and construction process that led to the leaning approaches.
“Projects with geotechnical issues such as this are difficult to predict,” they said. “Using proper assumptions and analysis methods usually provide reasonable results. We are reviewing the original design for a possible claim. As such, it would be premature to comment on any design flaws and associated responsibilities.”
DelDOT officials said price will be weighed more heavily in the upcoming round of bidding on the project than in the previous one, but noted that awarding of the design-build contract will still not be based entirely on the lowest bid.
“Technical qualifications remain a significant part in the final decision,” they emphasized.
The failure of two previous bidding processes, officials said, should not be a deterrent to potential bidders this time out.
“We are cautiously optimistic that we will continue to have interest in this project,” they said. “We have heard from various sources that contractors and design firms are already teaming up waiting for advertisement of the project.
“Although some teams may be put off due to the number of procurements we’ve done so far, we are doing everything we can to minimize risk for the design-build teams, making it attractive for them to participate. It is the ideal contract for the teams, as it consists mainly of bridgework,” they said.
Labor controversy a non-issue for agency
Addressing concerns about how the state deals with bids from contractors with unionized workers — the factor that derailed the second round of bidding until state legislators clarified the bidding process early this summer — officials said DelDOT is simply cannot and will not be considering the presence or lack of a unionized shop as a factor in the bidding.
“Delaware’s procurement laws do not require state contractors to be either unionized or non-unionized,” they explained. “As a department, we do not track, maintain, nor require that contractors identify whether they are union shop firms or not. There is no law that requires this.
“Additionally, since this is a federally participating project, we are not permitted to specify laborers to be used on the project; if we do so, the federal government will not fund the project. However, the ‘prevailing’ wage rates we are required to use are basically union-scale for bridge projects such as this one,” they concluded.
Impacts on park access expected to be reduced
Users of the state park, campground and marina adjacent to the Indian River Inlet also have a substantial stake in how the project is proceeding, and DelDOT cast the latest change in the design as a plus for those hoping for full access to the recreational areas to be restored.
Access to the park is intended to proceed as originally designed, they said Oct. 26.
“Proceeding with the bridge project as currently planned will actually allow the project to be completed sooner than if we had to allow time for the settlement,” officials noted.
Currently, the park access is restricted by allowing no vehicle access under the bridge. Access to the south campground is only available from southbound Route 1, and the south bath house beach area is only accessible from northbound Route 1. U-turns are permitted on Route 1, away from the project site.
After the new bridge is constructed, vehicle access will be permitted to both south-side locations from either northbound or southbound Route 1, as the access roads will loop under the bridge.
The access to all north-side locations will not change from what is there today, officials said.
“We will continue to coordinate issues with the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and determine if there are any additional measures we can take to reduce the impacts on access.”
Due to damage from the leaning embankments on the approaches, work to reconstruct Road 50A on the southwest side of the Indian River Inlet Bridge began the week of Oct. 22 and was set to conclude Friday, Nov. 2, weather permitting. Repaving of Route 1 in vicinity of the south embankment of the Indian River Inlet Bridge began Oct. 16, with traffic restricted to one lane northbound and southbound until it is completed, also anticipated on Nov. 2.
For more information on the Indian River Inlet Bridge project, and the latest design and bidding process, visit the project’s Web site at http://www.deldot.gov/information/projects/indian_river_bridge/index.sht....