McHugh Completes Fox River Bridge Six Months Early
CHICAGO, March 19 /PRNewswire/ -- James McHugh Construction Co. has completed reconstruction of the original 10-span arch bridge over the Fox River on the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88) six months ahead of schedule, McHugh officials announced.
The span replicates the original 1958 bridge with a series of five arches, rarely seen in modern infrastructure construction. McHugh completed a virtually identical new eastbound bridge in 2008. The two bridges increase traffic capacity to three lanes with shoulders in each direction as part of the Illinois Tollway's $6.3 billion Congestion Relief Program.
McHugh served as general contractor for the project, with Chicago-based Teng & Associates the engineers of record.
The learning curve developed from building the first bridge helped McHugh complete the work so early, said Michael Gould, McHugh vice president of infrastructure, as did a good rapport with the Tollway. "We also worked to compress the schedule and really pushed ourselves as much as possible," Gould said.
McHugh demolished the original 1958 bridge just north of the new eastbound bridge, built a new structure, and widened and repaved three miles of the westbound tollway between the Aurora Toll Plaza and Orchard Road, under a $31.4 million contract with the Tollway. The new bridge is made of structural precast concrete and features a series of five arches to replicate the original design, along with that of the eastbound bridge.
Among the project's challenges were building in the river and demolishing the existing 1958 bridge. The Fox River is not navigable around the bridge and is subject to constant rapid water flows. While building the first, eastbound span, McHugh persevered through a 500-year flood and two 100-year floods. As a result, the team was better prepared for the changing dynamics of the Fox River during construction of the westbound bridge.
Demolition posed an even greater challenge, from keeping the bridge stable to preventing debris from falling into the river.
The new bridge is 1,345 feet long, supported by 10 spans underneath the roadway, including five 178-foot-long spans. The five arches were created using 40 structural precast concrete arch segments, each weighing 92 tons, cast nearby and then carefully trucked to the river.
Founded in 1897, McHugh ,www.mchughconstruction.com, is one of Chicago's oldest and largest general contracting, construction management and consulting firms.
SOURCE James McHugh Construction Co.
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