$80M in additional repairs planned for 109-year-old Manhattan Bridge
Photo via Flickr cc
The Manhattan Bridge is set to undergo another rehabilitation, Skanska announced. The city’s Department of Transportation awarded the construction company a $75.9 million contract to perform structural and component rehabilitation on the bridge. Since 1982, the 109-year-old bridge, which crosses the East River connecting Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn, has been repaired 14 times, making this latest announcement the 15th construction contract.
The announcement of the latest rehab project comes a few months after fallen debris from the bridge was found in a section of the Brooklyn Bridge Park. This wasn’t the first time Manhattan Bridge rubble was found there; a foot-long chunk of steel fell from the bridge into the park the year before. As a short-term fix, protective scaffolding was installed around the area.
Designed by Leon Moisseiff and opened to traffic in 1909, the Manhattan Bridge carries more than 85,000 vehicles, 4,000 bikers, and 340,000 transit riders on an average weekday.
Skanska will replace and refurbish ornamental cast iron pieces of the bridge’s two towers, replace underdeck arch brackets, replace fence paneling from the Brooklyn to Manhattan approaches, and repair the structural steel beams on the main span and approaches.
“Skanska is proud to continue our work with the Department of Transportation to build, rehabilitate, and improve New York City’s bridges and other critical transportation infrastructure,” Paul Koch, Vice President of Estimating at Skanska said in a statement.
Skanska has completed a total of five contracts for the city, as part of DOT’s $834 million Manhattan Bridge reconstruction program that began in 1982. The company handled the most recent reconstruction in 2010, which involved replacing all 628 bridge suspenders, main cable re-wrapping, and installing maintenance platforms at the bridge towers.
For the latest project, construction will start this fall and wrap up in the spring of 2021.
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