Processes and Techniques for Rapid Bridge Replacement After Extreme Events

That guide provides a starting point for identifying and mitigating the vulnerability of highway transportation assets to terrorist threats or attacks and their consequences. A companion document, A Guide to Updating Highway Emergency Response Plans for Terrorist Incidents, also funded by AASHTO and FHWA and developed in parallel with the previous guide, assists government agencies in preparing and executing a coordinated emergency response to terrorist threats or attacks to the highway transportation system (3). Besides those two guides, AASHTO and FHWA sponsored other research projects on bridge and transportation security. One project was titled Design of Highway Bridges for Extreme Events, which was supervised by NCHRP. The objective of that research was to develop a design procedure for application of extreme event loads and combination loading to highway bridges (4). Another project was entitled Surface Transportation Security, also supervised by NCHRP. Results of that project were released in NCHRP Report 525 (5). State departments of transportation (DOTs) also initiated efforts to investigate and develop methods to lessen the impact of terrorist attacks and other extreme events on their transportation infrastructure. A pooled-fund research project, led by Texas DOT, titled Rapid Bridge Replacement Techniques, was conducted to identify rapid bridge replacement processes and techniques. One of the tasks associated with that research project was to conduct several case studies of previous bridge replacements following extreme events. The research team selected three cases to conduct detailed case studies. They were the Interstate 95 (I-95) Chester Creek Bridge in Pennsylvania, the Interstate 87 (I-87) New York State Thruway Bridge in Yonkers, New York, and the Interstate 40 (I-40) Webbers Falls Bridge in Oklahoma (6). Table 1 provides a brief description of these cases. These bridges were chosen because they were critical components on the nation’s major interstate highways, and the incidents had significant impacts on the surrounding communities and the driving public. This paper presents the findings of three detailed case studies. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: first, the authors state research objectives and methodology; second, a general model that Processes and Techniques for Rapid Bridge Replacement After Extreme Events