Located just south of Clarks Summit Toll Plaza on the Northeastern Expressway, this structure is one of The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s longest and highest bridges.
Benesch inspected and designed superstructure repairs for this 10-span, 1,624-foot-long, 150-feet-high bridge. Improvements included deck replacement and widening, partial steel beam superstructure replacement, along with steel beam repair/painting.
Various traffic control and lane configuration alternatives were evaluated in order to maintain sufficient traffic capacity along with a safe and effective work zone during the staged bridge deck replacement operations. Staged replacement of the existing precast deck panels necessitated the evaluation of temporary support stringers to accommodate the required traffic control patterns.
Benesch also identified isolated floorbeam distortion which resulted from differential thermal forces and addressed the issue during design.