Cable-stayed bridge completed

across James River

Twin box girder concept
saves time and materials

BY M.K. HURD

View from above, looking down

toward the James River, shows how
13 cables thread through the pylon to
support points in the deck. The 126-
foot-wide deck is composed of two
58-foot girders, typically 10 feet
apart. The center space is occupied
by precast delta frames and a cast-in-
place slab over the 1,530-foot
continuous length of the main
structure.

he newly completed cable- Now, howe ve r, bid results on the construction processes provide the

T stayed box girder bridge

over the James River near
Richmond, Virginia, has a
630-foot main span that is expect-
ed to set a new trend in the devel-
opment of cable-stay bridges. The
six-lane bridge is part of the Vir-
ginia Department of Tra n s p o rt a-
tion’s plan for an I-295 bypass east
of the state capital. Overall length of
the structure is 4,680 feet.
Historically the cable-stay con-
cept has been used for long spans of
800 feet or more—a range in which
the unstayed box girder cross sec-
tion is too heavy to be competitive.
James River Bridge suggest that the
cable-stay concept may have con-
siderable merit in the 500- to 700-
foot span range. When bids were re-
ceived in February 1985, all were for
the concrete scheme and none for
the steel alternate. The low bid of
$34 million was 20% below esti-
mates for the steel design and
brought the bridge cost to about $75
per square foot of deck. Final price
is now reported at $35.6 million, less
than 5% above the bid price.
Why so cost-effective?
Simplified design concepts and
key to success of this moderate span
cable-stay. Cost-effectiveness of the
project rests on maximum repeti-
tiveness in both casting and erec-
tion operations. Identical precast
box girder sections—a trapezoid
with wide flanges or wings at the
t o p — we re used for the entire
b ri d g e, including approach spans
and the cable-stayed center section.
Twin girders, each 58 feet wide,
make up the parallel roadways of
the bridge. By means of precast
t ra n s verse frames, referred to as
delta frames, placed between the
twin box girders at the section

Twin box girders 10 feet apart are supported by a series of
transverse precast delta frames. Using the delta frames (see
closeup in the photo) made it possible to have identical box
girder units in both the approach spans and the main spans.
where the stays are anchored into
the deck, loads from both girders
are transferred to the center plane
of suspension. Two single-shaft py-
lons carry the system of 13 stays
along the longitudinal axis of the
structure. This scheme requires less
material than an equivalent single
deck on the full width, and the
investment in special equipment
is significantly reduced, creating
advantages in the speed of
construction.
Precasting simplified
The concept of repetition was
carried through from the pile foun-
dations to the main span erection
c yc l e. In precasting, only four basic
shapes—box piers, box girder seg-
ments, pylons, and delta frames—
were produced. Variations in each
of these shapes were typically limit-
ed to items such as blockouts, num-
ber of post-tensioning ducts, and
type of deviation saddle for the ex-
ternal post-tensioning system. Even
the stay anchorage segments of
the main span were distinguished
only by the addition of an internal
diagonal strut.
Concrete for the project was sup-
plied by three local production
plants and delivered to the job
in ready mix trucks. Most of
the concrete was specified at 5500
psi, with 4500 or 6000 psi in a few
special areas.
Using a long bed form, the box
girder segments were match cast.
That is, each segment was cast
against the one which would be
next to it in the erected position, to
assure a good fit of the adjoining
pieces of precast.
Substructure and pylons
Foundations for the bridge rest
on 24-inch-square prestressed dri-
ven piles with 250-ton service load
capacity. Using the high-capacity
piles reduced both the number of
piles and the size of the footings.
Typical foundations have 10 or 12
piles. However the combined foot-
ings for the main span piers and py-
lon are supported by 88 piles.
The box piers, varying from 64 to
144 feet tall, are made up mostly of
14-foot-high precast segments, 8x18
feet in cross section. They were
stacked, several at a time, with
epoxy in the joints and then ve rt i-
cally post-tensioned.
The towers or pylons which sup-
port the two-single planes of stay
cables were cast in place from the
footing to roadway elevation, using
a climbing form. Then precast pylon
segments were hauled over the al-
ready erected roadway and lifted in-
to position by crane.
Approach span erection
The span-by-span erection
method was used for the 150-foot
approach spans. Each span consists
of seven typical segments each 20
feet long, with a 6-inch cast-in-place
closure and a diaphragm segment
over the pier at each end. Triangu-
lar erection trusses were first
brought into position for a given
span. Then each of the 140-ton box
girder segments was hauled over the
previously completed deck and low-
ered onto the trusses by long-stroke
h yd raulic jacks.
The girder segment that goes over
the pier was placed on its bearing
and aligned. Then abutting faces of
the girder segments were coated
with epoxy before they were post-
tensioned together using four tem-
p o ra ry stressing bars. The contrac-
tor then formed and cast the 6-inch
closure at either end of the span.
Once the cast-in-place concrete had
reached 2500 psi, the entire span
could be post-tensioned to com-
plete the span erection and make
the span self supporting. The post-
tensioning tendons were arranged
in a draped configuration on the
outside of the concrete girders.
These previously erected approach
spans provided considerable stabil-
ity during erection of the main span.
Main span erected by
cantilever method
The 630-foot main span provides
145 feet of vertical clearance and
300 feet of horizontal clearance,
thereby allowing unrestricted navi-
gation in the shipping channel. The
two 300-foot-tall pylons each sup-
port 13 cable stays for suspension
of the main span. The stays, made of
from 72 to 90 strands, 0.6-inch in di-
ameter, are continuous through the
towers, passing through a curved
steel pipe. Stays range from 92 to
620 feet in length. The design per-
mits future replacement of any one
stay while maintaining traffic on the
bridge.
The main span of the bridge was
built by cantilevering precast girder
segments from each pylon and fi-
nally making a short closure pour
when they met at the middle of the
river. The main-span segments were
10 feet long, a length selected for
compatibility with lifting equip-
ment and the 20-foot spacing of stay
WHAT DOES $35 MILLION BUY?
According to the bridge designer,
Figg and Muller Engineers, the
James River Bridge weighs
140,660 tons. This includes
66,648 cubic yards of
concrete
7,826,425 pounds of reinforc-
ing steel
3,568,382 pounds of prestress-
ing/post-tensioning
steel
And if all the steel wires, bars, and
rods were laid out end-to-end,
they would reach from New York
to Los Angeles and back...and
then some! A total of 6,517 miles.
anchorages at the deck level.
The main span erection was just
as repetitive as that of the approach
spans, but the segments were
brought in by barge and lifted indi-
vidually from river level. For each
20-foot length of bridge the cycle in-
volved the following steps. First one
10-foot box girder segment per lane
was lifted, coated with epoxy at the
end, and secured by post-tension-
ing. Next a stay anchor segment for
each lane (also 10 feet long) was lift-
ed, coated with epoxy, and secured
by post-tensioning. Then the pre-
cast delta frame was lifted into place
and cast-in-place closures were
made at the top and bottom con-
nection points.
After this closure concrete had
reached 2500-psi strength, post-
tensioning took place, and then
the stay was threaded from one an-
chorage through the polyethylene
stay pipe up over the pylon and back
down to the other anchorage.
Stressing of the stay completed the
erection cycle for a 20-foot-long,
126-foot-wide section of the bridge.
Experienced crews completed such
a cycle in less than a week.
Completion of the structure
Work on the James River Bridge
began in April 1985, and the last
cantilever segment was erected in
May 1989. Filling the remaining 1-
foot-4-inch gap with cast-in-place
concrete completed the structure.
The James River Bridge will be-
come the cornerstone of the I-295
connection from Richmond to Pe-
tersburg, reducing congestion for
commuters and through traffic
alike. Its presence has already stim-
ulated industrial and residential de-
velopment in previously isolated ar-
eas on each side of the ri ve r, and it
will become a gateway to the city for
navigation traffic on the ri ve r.
Credits
Owner: The State of Virginia, Depart-
ment of Transportation, Richmond,
Virginia
Designer: Figg and Muller Engineers,
Inc., Tallahassee, Florida
Contractor: A joint venture of S. J.
Groves and Sons Company, Min-
neapolis, Minnesota, and Kiewit East-
ern Company, Omaha, Nebraska
Acknowledgment
Much of the information on which this
story was based comes from a draft
prepared by James Farris of the Vir-
ginia Department of Transportation
and W. Denney Pate of Figg and
Muller Engineers, Inc.
PUBLICATION#C890775
Copyright © 1989, The Aberdeen Group
All rights reserved