Concrete Products

JAN 2015

Concrete Products covers the issues that attract producers of ready mixed and manufactured concrete focusing on equipment and material technology, market development and management topics.

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64 • January 2015 www.concreteproducts.com FEATURE BY ILLINOIS TOLLWAY CUSTOMER SERVICE Ed Kraemer & Sons' motorist-friendly plan was noted up the chain from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. Upon announcement of the gantry scheme weeks before the first girder erection phase, then-Illinois Governor Pat Quinn observed, "This technology will help the Tollway complete this major project on schedule without disrupting the thousands of drivers who use this bridge every day. We are committed to rebuilding and improving these vital roadways to help our residents travel more easily and our businesses ship their products more efficiently." "The advanced building techniques and equipment the Tollway is using to complete this crucial project illustrate how we are always looking for new ways to improve our road system," added Toll Authority Executive Director Kristi Laf- leur. "Innovation helps us complete challenging construction work more quickly, which saves time and reduces costs." The new bridge will have side-by-side 1,315-ft.-long structures rising 40 feet above the water and adjacent roadways. With eight spans and seven piers—versus the original structure's 14 piers—each crossing will reduce the environmental impact on the waterway and forested fen below. The Fox River Bridge has average daily volume just over 100,000 vehicles. The Fox River Bridge was constructed in the 1950s as part of the original Tollway system. The Kenney Kraemer J.V. undertaking is part of the $2.5 billion Jane Addams Memorial Tollway Rebuilding and Widening Project, funded by the 15-year, $12 billion "Move Illinois: The Illinois Tollway Driving the Future" capital program. The Jane Addams/I-90 upgrade will deliver what Illinois Tollway offi- cials describe as a 21st century, state-of-the-art corridor linking Rockford, Ill., to O'Hare International Airport. With calculations and drawing assistance from Westbrook Engineer- ing of Spring Green, Wis., Ed Kraemer & Sons designed and fabri- cated the mobile structures at its Plain, Wis., headquarters shop. The gantry scheme displaces two additional large-capacity cranes and the costly shoring they would have required under the bridge. The gantry's trailer-to-pier girder transfer window is comparable to what Kraemer estimates conventional lifting equipment would have entailed. Specialized, six-bolt picking plates at the beam end points require limited time for crews to engage hoists. The devices have to be placed into the prestressed concrete member prior to pulling underneath the gantry system and then positioning travelers over the girder. Air-driven trolley systems bearing like-powered 50-ton chain hoists run on the upper gantry frame and travel using geared drive wheels. Operators control hoist raising and lowering, plus trolley travel, with thin gauge cables. One operator is needed for each trolley/hoist combination. Two trolleys and hoists are used at each pier location with a distribution beam in between. The confgura- tion is necessary to utilize one gantry design without augmenting the system for variable pier cap widths or moving the trolleys from one side of the gantry frame to the other, depending on which span crews are picking. A total of fve operators are enlisted in beam erection—four for the hoists/trolleys and one for placing picking devices.

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