Starke County Bridge #46 Replacement Design

The replaced bridge was built in 1970 and had developed deterioration of the pre-stressed concrete box beams, including advanced cracking & spalling at the beam tension areas, with exposed and rusted steel reinforcement. Also, erosion had developed behind the timber end walls and timber wing walls. JPR designed the bridge replacement with a 3-span, 54' long x 28' wide, continuously reinforced cast-in-place concrete "slab-top" bridge supported by driven steel pile shells filled with concrete, steel beam guardrail, and riprap over geotextiles stream bank stabilization. This type of bridge is very easily maintained. An "internal cure" concrete mix was used for the bridge deck, end bents, and piers, as well for the reinforced concrete approach slabs for prolonged service life. Asphalt pavement resurface was designed for the bridge approaches. No additional R/W was required. The reconstruction of Bridge #46 was completed in 2017 with local funding.

This bridge was one of three individual bridges within Starke County that JPR completed the overall design for within the same 5 month period. JPR's design tasks included: topographic survey, coordination with County Surveyor, utility coordination, environmental permitting, geotechnical investigation & piling design, preparation of bridge design plan drawings and specifications/contract document, in-house peer design review, various meetings with Starke County, bid advertisement, answering of bidder's questions, analysis of bids and recommendation of awarding of construction contract, preparing construction contract document, attending of pre-construction conference, review of contractor's shop drawings, and on-call assistance to the Starke County construction inspector during the course of the project construction.

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