Consultants to the New York State Department of Transportation have concluded that the Champlain Bridge would cost too much money and could be a less safe option and would take longer than razing the vital link between Vermont and New York and building a new one. The cost would likely be in excess of $67 million and take about two years to build.
When construction would begin is unclear. There has also been discussion on whether the new bridge should be located farther south toward Ticonderoga, NY. But for now, the consultants, HNTB New York Engineering and Architecture PC are emphasizing that the existing bridge is in such "fragile" condition that it must be dismantled as soon as possible and carefully. HNTB is warning that high winds and ice from the coming winter could further compromise the structure.
On Monday, while standing on the land-based part of the Vermont side of the closed (October 16) Champlain Bridge, New York Acting Commissioner of Transportation Stanley Gee delivered the structure’s death warrant. At the hastily called press conference at Chimney Point (November 9, 2009), Gee said NYS-DOT and three consulting engineering firms had analyzed all the data from all the inspections of the 80-year-old bridge, and had concluded that it had indeed passed its predicted 70-year lifespan. Unsafe for anyone to work on, and so close to collapse that the waterway beneath has been close to boat traffic, the rusting steel trusses have to go as soon as possible, he said.
A press release from NYS-DOT put it this way: “According to the report's Executive Summary, ‘If any major cracks were to develop diagonally in the (weakest) pier or deterioration reduces the contact bearing area between concrete segments, the pier could fail without warning. The risk and safety for personnel working in close proximity to the existing, fragile bridge is too great to permit rehabilitation in any form. Moving forward, the existing bridge should be razed in a controlled manner eliminating the risk of sudden, potentially catastrophic, bridge failure.’"
Workers on a barge where engineers were making test borings to determine the amount of support for a temporary ferry dock off Chimney Point. The wind on the lake, shown here by the flag on the ferry, is one of the forces that might help bring on a sudden collapse of the Champlain Bridge, according to New York officials.
The draft of the complete bridge safety report and its executive summary is posted at www.nysdot.gov, Gee said; www.aot.state.vt.us will have the information as well, the press release said. At www.nysdot.gov, where the Champlain Bridge was on the front page, the following could be found at the end of the “contact us” section: “By submitting an email we will assume you would like to be added to our e-mail contact list for project updates & notices of public meetings.”
The email address given was [email protected]. Another address given by the press release, www.lcbclosure.org, went to the same NYS-DOT website. No one gave any details of potential demolition methods or likely time-frames. Gee would only say they were talking with experts about the situation. Asked if there had been any discussion of creative memorial use of the historic steel girders‹the bridge is a National Historic Monument, and speakers at public meetings have described their love for the iconic structure‹he said that had been a very low priority.
NYS-DOT has “instrumented” the bridge to monitor its responses to stresses like high wind and winter ice, Gee said, so that if a collapse is imminent, warnings will be possible. He did not include snow load as one of the dangers, even when asked about the subject; speculating, perhaps the plan is to remove the steel span sooner than the heavy snows of late winter.
Gee (pronounced with a hard gee, not like the expression “gee whiz”) said his department was working hard on three projects at once. Creating a temporary ferry, arranging for the demolition of the unsafe bridge, and speeding along the process of building a new bridge are all top priorities, he said.
Underwater picture of the worst damage, to pier 5--cracking that borings found had gone 18 inches deep, showing a pattern of accelerating deterioration of the unreinforced concrete.
At a previous meeting, NYS-DOT had said that the federally mandated Environmental Impact Statement process and other requirements would delay bridge construction until 2013. On Monday, Gee said removing the alternative of rehabilitating the old bridge from the EIS process would save a year’s time, and they were looking into other ways to speed the required assessments along.
Both New York and Vermont have declared transportation emergencies because the bridge is such an important link for businesses on both sides of the lake. The November 9 press release quotes Gov. James Douglas as saying, “Reports indicate that the bridge is highly unstable and our harsh winter will only aggravate its condition. For everyone’s safety, the bridge must be dismantled in a controlled fashion quickly so that a replacement bridge can be erected in its place.”
The last three words of Douglas’s statement might suggest that a new structure could be put in place using the old bridge crossing. But the press conference made it clear that the 1929 unreinforced concrete piers are in no condition to support a structure, and will need to be demolished as well.
While Gee and NYS-DOT Chief Engineer Robert Dennison spoke, preparations continued for a new ferry service about 1,000 feet south of where they spoke. Offshore, an engineering team on a barge was making test borings to determine how much natural support there might be for a dock. Onshore, contracted consulting archeologists were digging test pits and analyzing findings along the likely roadway and approaches to the dock, with dozens of small orange flags marking past places they had examined.
David Van Deusen, one of the archeologists, said they had found plenty of Native American evidences, but nothing so significant as to stop work. In any case, he said, the plan is to bury and thus preserve what is along the path of the road, then to remove the added material when the temporary ferry goes out of service.
In the parking area beneath the bridge, on November 9, construction materials had been stockpiled: concrete beams, massive wooden timbers, black water-permeable fencing of the kind used around construction sites to prevent silt runoff, a lighting generator to facilitate nighttime work. Much of this was in the bridge collapse zone, as was the boat landing at the end of the un-signposted access road, but such issues would presumable be dealt with moved as soon as practicable.
Reporters pressed Gee for information on the likely cost of a new bridge, but the only figure he gave was the same $50 million mentioned at previous meetings and on the NYS-DOT website. This was a very rough estimate, he said, noting that, “It depends on what kind of bridge we build.”
Gee observed that when the Champlain Bridge went up in 1929, its builders estimated its usable lifespan at 70 years, and that was 80 years ago.
“Their assumptions unfortunately were more accurate than we’d like,” he said.
Story and photos by Ed Barna. Vermont Business Magazine. 9.10.2009