The I-93 Fast 14 bridge project is one of the industry’s most impressive examples of accelerated bridge construction. Over ten weekends from June to mid-August 2011, the J. F. White–Kiewit joint venture team of J. F. White Contracting Co. and Kiewit Construction Corp. replaced 14 deteriorated bridge superstructures along I-93 in Medford, Mass. Each bridge replacement was placed on a 55-hour concentrated schedule, which stipulated severe penalties if the highway was not fully open to traffic with a new bridge prior to 5 A.M. Monday morning.
Another condition of the contract was that the project team had to find a way to allow multiple stakeholders—including the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT); federal, state and local government officials; and the state police—to monitor activities throughout construction.
J. F. White selected four mobile, solar-powered EarthCam TrailerCam systems, each mounted with two high-resolution megapixel cameras with time-lapse and live-streaming capabilities. The cameras were remotely controlled by J. F. White; a live feed that allowed up to 80 users concurrent access and review was supplied to a secure website via a cellular modem.
“During the project, we had over 80 subscribed active logon accounts available to just about every active business participant,” said Bruce L. Roberts, network administrator for J. F. White. “MassDOT and its consulting engineers used both cameras actively every weekend to track progress, monitor traffic flows and review time schedules.”
Additionally, the Massachusetts State Police set up a mobile command station near the project site and ran multiple live and archived screens with the camera data. The project team also monitored the cameras regularly to track progress, crew size, equipment placement, crew progress and crew coordination, as well as to conduct detailed review and inspection.
Using conventional methods, it would have taken at least four years to replace all 14 bridges. With a talented project team and continuous monitoring, the I-93 Fast 14 project was completed as scheduled, minimizing construction-related congestion.
