The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
A REWORKING IN PROGRESS
Construction moves along on landmark Bascule Bridge
The Charles Berry Bascule Bridge is a rework in progress.
Lorain’s landmark span over the Black River has become a construction site that remains open to traffic on water, and on the road.
The Ohio Department of Transportation, with consultant HDR, is overseeing a major rehabilitation of the bridge, which carries four lanes of traffic of U.S. Route 6 over the river.
When ships arrive or depart Lorain, the bridge deck splits in the middle and both sides, or leaves, lift up to allow vessels to pass through.
The bridge opened to traffic in 1940 and its first major rehabilitation occurred in 1988.
State inspectors review the bridge each year, and it gets periodic refurbishing every 10 years or so, said ODOT spokeswoman Crystal Neelon.
Once completed, the work should last 50 years, according to project plans.
“If the last major rehab was done in 1988, the work that they do really does last,” said Neelon, who works in the agency’s District 3 office in Ashland.
On Dec. 12, Neelon
accompanied ODOT Transportation Engineer James Wade and Tim Ralston, project engineer for HDR, on a construction tour through the west and east towers that house the controls and motors that operate the bridge.
They emphasized the bridge remains safe for people and cars to cross over and the project will add new strength and life to the structure.
The $26.3 million project started in May and will last through the end of 2019.
Ruhlin Co. and Perram Electric Inc. have joined to be the lead contractors on the job.
Work so far
In warmer weather, much of the work has been visible to the public with lane closures and construction workers visible to drivers and pedestrians.
There have been repairs to sidewalks, the road surfaces of the bridge approaches and the masonry of the towers where the controls are.
In a previous contract, that stone was sealed, but the sealant trapped moisture, causing the base of the stone to corrode, Wade said.
The panels that were repaired have a tan color that visibly is lighter than those untouched. But the darker masonry panels will be cleaned to remove previous sealant.
“Basically, what they tried to do was get repairs where most of the public can see it, try to get it uniform and a good appearance up there for everybody to look at,” Wade said.
There are stone panels gone that will be replaced with freshly quarried rock to create the outer layer of the towers.
Crews also have painted the structural steel that holds up the approaches to the bridge.
Down below
Now that the weather is colder, some of the work has moved under the bridge, and some inside.
On the west side of the river, crews have set up catwalks and use a lift set on a barge to repair the steel on the underside of the movable bridge decks.
They also will bring the bridge up to current load standards, Wade said.
Ruhlin Co. is good with its safety and have practiced drills on what would happen if a worker fell into the Black River, he said.
Exterior metal repairs and some painting can take place in the cold and that will continue through the winter.
Inside the west tower, some of the steel parts have been prepared for painting.
Inside, a net hangs from the uppermost area, with a tarp on top of it, to create a floor that workers can walk on to paint the metal above them.
The tarp also seals in the grit used to scour the metal to prepare it for painting.
“One of the challenges they had painting this bridge is, there’s a lot of oil and grease here from the moving parts,” Wade said. “They have a lot coming down here. It was caked on through decades.”
East side
The western bridge deck is the main one operating now to allow tugboats and barges through to carry out dredge material from upstream, said Wade and Bridge Operator Jennifer Stewart.
The east deck remains operable, but it requires notice to lift because the paint crews inside need to remove some items.
The contractor and Coast Guard are working on details to leave the bridge down in January through April, with openings for maritime traffic only when needed and with advance notice, Wade said.
On the east side of the bridge, the machinery visible on the bridge approach is used to recycle the grit used for sand-blasting the parts inside.
Below the bridge approach, two industrial-sized space heaters blow warm air to heat the interior of the east tower.
Workers from Eagle Industrial Painting have set up cables, platforms and lights for cleaning and painting.
When the bridge decks rise, they balance with two huge counterweights inside they bridge towers.
Much of the inside cleaning and painting takes place in the space where the counterweights drop.
“You don’t want to be stuck down here,” Wade said.
Outside, crews have installed T-shaped brackets on the railings of the bridge deck.
Those will support the covers over the bridge substructure when the painters move out to add a new coat of paint.
New machinery
The west and east towers include motor rooms each with two, 150 HP motors that turn to raise and lower the bridge decks.
Those motors will be replaced with new ones, also 150 HP, Wade said.
“Pretty much everything in here, goes,” he said in the motor room of the west tower.
“We get new motors, new brakes.
“There’s a bunch of shafts that run down below this floor, they’re all getting taken out.”
In February, crews will begin installing four temporary hydraulic pistons that will raise and lower the bridge decks.
Next year, when Lorainites see the bridge moving up or down, it will be due to the temporary system until the new motors and parts are installed.
The goal is to not have the bridge decks stuck in an up position, Wade said.
When that happens, ships may pass through via the river, but car traffic is blocked on the street.
In control
Much of the bridge’s control system was moved to the west tower during the 1988 major rehabilitation, according to ODOT.
In the bridge control house, Stewart, an eightyear bridge operator, said the console that is in place now, soon will go away.
“We’re going to be losing all these awesome buttons,” she said. “All these light up. I like this as my ambiance lighting at night.
“All the lights come on, it glows in here.”
Due to Black River’s 25-foot-deep navigation channel and angle of flow, freighter captains often question whether the bridge decks are all the way up, Stewart said.
She also described the views of the wildlife, especially ducks that pass by the bridge and are visible from the control house.
“It’s the best view of Lorain, I think,” Stewart said. “I love it. I love it. It’s beautiful.”