In New York City, Alexander Hamilton Bridge Gets Complicated Rehabilitation

Truss Travels On Teflon-Coated Tracks — Hamilton Bridge connects Manhattan and the Bronx.

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By the end of last year, crews completed stage four, replacing the deck for the northbound bridge's middle section. Stages four and five are the two milestones that carry heavy incentives and disincentives. The team finished stage four about five weeks early, earning an approximately $1.9-million maximum bonus. "Thanks to innovation and open-minded dialogue, we've made up the delays and are back on schedule," says Eng.

Work is now under way on stage five, which will replace the southbound span's middle section. The team could win a maximum incentive of $875,000. In the final stage, crews will remove all temporary decking and complete the installation of the new stringers and deck. The project is set for a December completion.

While the new structural steel will be painted for better resistance to corrosion, the new deck includes shoulders in both directions, new elastomeric bearings to meet seismic standards, new drainage components, and improved overhead sign structures and highway lighting. Four new main girders will add redundancy. Crews also are completing $20 million worth of work reconstructing two playgrounds and building a skateboard park near the bridge plus a day-care center, says Michael McCotter, NYSDOT engineer in charge.

The revamped structure is expected to have a design life of at least 75 years, says Eng. The addition of stainless steel reinforcing bars in the new cast-in-place concrete deck will help achieve that. "The extra cost upfront is insignificant compared to the extra life we'll get out of it," he notes.

The rehabilitation of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge seemed destined for woe more than once. Zero bids. A delay estimated by the owner to be almost 11 months. Unexpectedly high levels of deterioration. And a spaghetti bowl of dizzying ramps carrying thousands of vehiclesdaily between Manhattan and the Bronx and to points beyond. But thanks to a construction team's aggressively proactive approach, intensive partnering with the owner and a variety of value-engineering solutions, the $407-million rehabilitation of a crucial New York Cityartery is now sailing steadily toward completion.

Aileen Cho, ENR's senior transportation editor, is a native of Los Angeles and recovering New Yorker. She studied English and theater at Occidental College, where a reporter teaching the one existing journalism course encouraged her to apply for the LA Times Minority Editing Training Program. Her journalism training led to her first stories about transportation, working as a cub reporter with the Greenwich Time. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Many of her experiences with engineers and contractors have inspired material for her alternative theater productions way, way off Broadway. For ENR, Aileen has traveled the world, clambering over bridges in China, touring an airport in Abu Dhabi and descending into dark subway tunnels in New York City. She is a regular at transportation conferences, where she finds that airport and mass transit engineers really know how to have fun. Aileen is always eager to hop on another flight because there are so many interesting projects and people, and she gets tired of throwing her cats off her computer in her home office in Long Beach, California. She is a very conflicted Mets/Dodgers fan.

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