Structal-Bridges to use orthotropic deck on a Chicago bridge

In late 2009, Structal-Bridges concluded a $3.5-million agreement with Walsh Group to rehabilitate the Congress Parkway Bridge, a double-leaf bascule bridge, in Chicago, the largest city in the Midwest. Built in 1956, the eight-lane bridge spans the south branch of the Chicago River in the heart of the city. This rehabilitation project is the first of its kind for Structal-Bridges, which will fabricate four 124.7-foot (38 m) orthotropic panels at its Claremont, NH plant in two phases, the first in the spring of 2010 and the second in the spring of 2011.

The Illinois Department of Transportation wanted to find the best solution to replace the current open-grid deck by a closed deck system with a watertight, skid-resistant wearing surface for a smoother, safer ride, without increasing the mobile structure’s “dead” load. Structal-Bridges successfully demonstrated that its orthotropic deck offers all these advantages and then some. A major advantage is rapid installation because its orthotropic panels are entirely shop-fabricated and even incorporate a shop-applied wearing surface.

Other advantages of Structal’s orthotropic panels:

• Increase the structure’s traffic-bearing capacity.
• Offer a longer service life (approx. 75 years) and require less maintenance than conventional concrete slab.
• Allow the bridge to remain in service while construction is underway.