Temporary tower foundations for the New San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge self anchored suspension span

A. Sy, T. Thavaraj, B. Hamersley, M. Reyes, D. Dowdell, S. Tudor

In the proceedings of: GEO2011: 64th Canadian Geotechnical Conference, 14th Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 5th Pan-American Conference on Teaching and Learning of Geotechnical Engineering

Session: Transportation Geotechnics

ABSTRACT: The new east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will feature a single tower self-anchored suspension (SAS) bridge that will become the largest of its kind in the world when it is completed in 2013. During construction of the SAS bridge, temporary towers and trusses are required to support the box girders until erection of the suspension cables is complete. The temporary towers are supported on various foundation types consisting of micro-piles, rock socketed drilled shafts, and large diameter steel pipe piles driven into marine sediments and bedrock. This paper presents details of the challenges faced during the design and construction of the tower foundations. Construction of the temporary towers and foundations began in 2008, the towers were in place by 2010, and placement of box girders and construction of the permanent main tower are currently underway.

RESUMEN: El nuevo tramo al este del Puente de la bahía entre San Francisco y Oakland (Bay Bridge) cuenta con una sola torre anclada auto-suspendida (SAS) que se convertirá en la mas grande de su clase en el mundo cuando se complete en el año 2013. Durante la construcción del puente de SAS, se requieren torres temporales y armaduras para apoyar las vigas de caja hasta que se instalen los cables de suspensión. Las torres temporales se apoyan en diversos tipos de fundaciones que consisten en micro-pilotes, pilotes de hormigón armado moldeados en roca in situ, y pilotes de acero de gran diámetro terminados en sedimentos marinos y roca. Esta publicación técnica detalla algunos de los desafios enfrentados durante el diseño y construcción de los cimientos de la torre. La construcción de las torres temporales y las fundaciones se comenzaron en el año 2008 y se completaron en el año 2010, y la colocación de vigas de caja y la construcción de la torre principal está actualmente en curso.

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