New Cooper River Bridge (Arthur Ravenel Bridge): Paving the Main and back spans

Paving continues, albeit at a slow pace due to weather delays. Here are a couple of photos to give some idea of the scale and progress.

Looking west. You can see the rails bounding the inner southern lane that the Bidwell machine rides on

The paving of the west back span is mostly complete. Here you can see the rebar outlining the traffic barrier

The inside east-bound and west-bound lanes are complete and the rebar that outlines the separation barrier is in place.

The west backspan. Both west-bound lanes are paved as is the inside east-bound lane - looking east.

The east back span looking east. There is about a 100' segment of the outside west-bound lane to be paved.

May 20, 2005: More paving painting and stuff
The north and two inner lanes are complete. Only the south lane remains and it is about 60% complete.

Looking east - only the south lane is incomplete - a short segment at the end of the west back span and from the east pylon to the end of the east back span.

And the next south outside segment is being prepared. Note that the Bidwell machine and portable lights are parked near the 10th stay cable anchor

Early this morning, it was a bit chilly and cloudy. Here is a view looking east from the western end of the bridge. To the right is the last segment to be paved - about 50 feet long.

Walking from west to east, I first encountered the paved segment that was curing yesterday. Hmmm - something happened over night.

Yesterday, you noted (because your curious eyes were enabled - weren't they?) that the Bidwell paving machine was parked near the 9th stay cable anchor. Here you see that it has moved a bit east and is now parked near the 5th stay cable anchor. Sometime during the night, some paving action happened. Also the portable lights have been moved east a distance of about about 4 anchors.

Here the new pavement from last night is curing and if you count the anchors on the left - there are eight - close enought for highway work. Isn't mathematics wonderful? Also the wet burlap that was covering yesterday's segment has been removed and neatly folded.

Sometimes I just get lucky, possibly because I simply cannot sit still. Just like a high temperature chemical reaction, I am often bouncing around exploring new ideas. As a kid, I would surely have been diagnosed with ADD. So today, I bounced up to the bridge and another big surprise was waiting for me - more paving since yesterday. So, Friday's, Saturday's and today's visit yielded big time progress with paving the outside south lane. Here is a summary of progress since Friday - A lucky view from above

New pavement curing from last (Saturday) night. Note the position of the 5th cable-stay anchor and scroll down to yesterday's (Saturday's) photos and compare with the launching position of the Bidwell paving machine.

I thought I would try to catch the paving this evening. The moon was full and here is the west pylon bathed in moonlight.

The Bidwell paving machine and the cement mixer were in their launching positions. The mixer truck is special and can add multiple components to the resultant concrete.

This is the mixer that mixes the aggregate, sand, cement, latex and water. Each component is measured (by volume) and dropped onto a src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.ravenelbridge.net/small conveyor belt near the back of the truck where it is rapidly mixed. The Styrafan latex 1186 is manufactured by BASF and adds flexibility and durability to the road surface.

The BAST article describes the paving process better than I can: "Cleco employed a straightforward process to install the latex-modified concrete bridge deck overlay. Modified Concrete Suppliers, LLC, Indianapolis, Ind., their latex concrete supply contractor for this project, used specially designed trucks equipped with computerized component metering and augers to mix the Styrofan 1186 latex, cement, sand, aggregate and water on site for application to the bridge deck surface. Following application to the bridge deck, Cleco employees used a Bid-Well finishing machine to spread and trowel the overlay to achieve thickness and surface smoothness specifications. Once installation of a section was completed, wet burlap was applied to the surface of the overlay, covered with polyethylene sheeting, and allowed to moist cure for 24 hours. This step controlled the rate of water evaporation from the overlay. After two days of dry cure, the surface was ready for use."

I spent the day at the Savannah River Research Center and did not get back to Charleston until about 6pm. I got to the bridge about 8pm thinking I'll look and surely they will not start paving before 10pm. I got there and guess what? - they had not only started they have almost finished. So here is the end of the paving story.

Remaining was a src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.ravenelbridge.net/small gutter to be paved

Here is the entire team waiting for everything to be in their respective launching positions. The man on the left is operating the mixing machine while the guys on the right are waiting for the mixed concrete to slide down the delivery trough.

As the mixing truck drives into the sunset, here is a final view of the entire paving ensemble - a mixer, the team and the sunset.