Wheeling & Lake Erie Over I-71 Abutment Rehabilitation

Primary Service

• Structures

Client

• ODOT District 3

Location

• Montville Township

Tasks Performed

• Bridge Design
• Bridge Inspection
• Maintenance of Traffic
• Surveying
• Utility Coordination

Project Description

ODOT District 3 hired Euthenics to design the rehabilitation of the existing abutments and refurbish and replace the bearings on the Wheeling and Lake Erie (W&LE) Railroad Bridge over I-71. The existing abutments were spalling and beginning to undermine the bearings on this fracture critical bridge. W&LE would not allow more than a 24-hour track outage to perform work and Euthenics determined that the existing toe of footing was not sufficient to support the girder under live load. This led Euthenics to come up with a two-step "outside the box" solution. During a 24-hour track outage, the bridge was temporarily jacked and supported from the toe of footing. This allowed the contractor to remove the existing bearings and install a "beam pack" across the existing beam seat which is capable of supporting the live load from the train traffic. While the beam pack is installed, the contractor refurbished the existing bearings and rehabilitated the beam seats. The reverse of this construction procedure was be used to remove the temporary supports. Construction was completed in 2023