The I-10 westbound on-ramp from US-61 in Louisiana is a curved steel-plate girder bridge. The bridge consists of four continuous spans with span lengths of 114 ft., 140 ft., 140 ft., and 115 ft. each. The exterior girder of the second span over I-10 eastbound was struck by an over-height vehicle, causing severe damage to the girder.
The superstructure consists of two curved steel plate girders with a curvature radius of 757.4 ft. The substructure consists of two concrete hammerhead bents and two steel bents.
The repair was performed by removing a segment of the second span at the splices, assembling the new segment on-site, and sliding in place a self-propelled modular transportation (SPMT) vehicle. This allowed for minimum highway closure.
SDR’s scope of work included design of repair, development of repair plans, and testing and monitoring. Load testing was performed before and after repair with continuous monitoring. Three-dimensional Finite Element analysis with staged-construction was deployed to design the repair and ensure the integrity of the bridge during each phase of construction
