Orange County Branch Newsletter

November 2015

Younger Member Forum

Gerald Desmond Bridge Technical Tour


By: Chuck Karunathilake

The New Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project tour was held on Friday, October 9th 2015. The tour was made possible by the Design-Builder for the project SFI; a joint venture between Shimmick Construction, FCC & Impregilo. The guest speaker for the tour was Azzam Saad, SFI’s Contract Manager. All together there were 28 attendees.                  

During the tour, the participants were able to observe and learn about the deep foundation installation, pile cap construction, solid & hollow column construction, and Moving Scaffolding System (MSS) assembly for the superstructure. It was a great opportunity for the participants to learn about the Tip Grouting method used for the first time in piles for a Cal Trans project which reduced the average pile length by a min of 100 ft. Also learning about the MSS used for the construction of the main spans instead of traditional falsework was very educational and innovative.

The new bridge will be built with a cable-stayed design and will be high enough to accommodate the newest generation of the most efficient cargo ships. In addition, the new bridge will be wider and better able to accommodate existing and future traffic volumes. All together all the attendees had a great time, great meal and learned a lot about the project.