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Larson Design Group (LDG)’s Transportation Division took home another award for its innovative Pennsylvania Turnpike bridge slide project. The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission chose the project as the winner of its 2018 Transportation Infrastructure award, which celebrates excellence in planning and design in Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties.
The 2017 project involved the demolition and reconstruction of a 60-year-old structurally deficient bridge within a 55-hour timeframe using innovative sliding bridge technology designed by LDG. The accelerated bridge construction “roller” technique was a first for the Pennsylvania Turnpike and one of the few bridge slides to have been achieved in the commonwealth over the past three-plus decades. LDG teamed with Road-Con to replace the bridge on the northeast extension of I-476 in Lehigh County over the course of a single weekend, which successfully minimized disruption to tens of thousands of motorists and avoided stiff financial penalties.
“LDG was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to work on such a unique project. It’s not often that an opportunity like this comes along,” said Steven Wilver, PE, Vice President of LDG’s Transportation Division. “Quentin Rissler and his team delivered on the goals of this project and exceeded our client’s expectations, which were safety and minimal disruption to the traveling public. The success of this project sets the stage for additional opportunities to use this type of accelerated bridge construction in the future.”
This is the third award since 2017 for the project; LDG also took home the 2018 award for Outstanding New Medium Span Bridge from the Susquehanna Chapter of the Association for Bridge Construction and Design (ABCD) and the 2018 TQI Partnering Award from the Associated Pennsylvania Constructors. Rissler also has given a presentation on the project to a range of prestigious industry groups and conferences more than a dozen times since 2017.