National Partnership for Highway Quality Awards
December 3, 2004
 A partnership of federal and state highway officials and highway industry leaders, the National Partnership for Highway Quality, has announced the winners of its 2004 "Making a Difference" Awards. The awards recognize innovations, practices and teamwork that raise the bar for roadway performance, safety, and environmental stewardship.
Connecticut
The highway team that reconnected New Haven, Connecticut’s downtown area with its harbor for the first time since the mid-1800s won NPHQ’s Making a Difference Bronze Award for Risk Taking. Participants were the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT), Federal Highway Administration, Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, O & G Industries, the City of New Haven, Gannett Fleming, and Metro-North Railroad.
The project, which carries Church Street South over the New Haven Rail Yard, finished up five months ahead of schedule and $0.5 million under budget despite daunting challenges. One was to complete construction of the 1274-foot long, 8-span bridge over the electrified main line tracks with minimal disruption to railroad commuter services and rail yard operations. The team devised a construction sequence where the 320-foot long steel truss span was preassembled off line and placed into its final position over the tracks during a single 3-hour weekend track and power outage using one of the largest capacity cranes in the world.
The "Big Pick" required a crane capacity of 1,550 tons at the pick radius of 186 feet. As over 500 spectators looked on during the early morning hours of May 4, 2003, a single high-capacity crane lifted and walked the 1048 tons of truss and rigging about 100 feet before rotating and placing it into final position over the tracks. |
