Sain provides Construction Engineering & Inspection (CE&I) services for roadway projects, including bridges, resurfacing, widening, signals, drainage, and sidewalks. Over the last several years, Sain has helped cities with their CE&I duties as they hire contractors to build new bridges. Our CE&I staff is experienced with bridge inspections and construction administration, having worked on over 50 bridge projects.
Sain recently completed CE&I services for a 3-span bridge over the CSX railroad in Prattville for their new industrial park. The construction was part of a long-term project that began in 2001 – the bridge, which measures 14,256 square feet, was built across open farmland on a 1.2-mile road.
Early in the project, our team encountered a problem where concrete was out of specification on air content. The crew noticed that the air content was less than the minimum 2.5 percent specified, and many concrete loads were rejected and sent back to the plant. We met with the supplier and shared our testing results. Eventually, the supplier determined that the fly ash in the mix design made the air content hard for them to control. The supplier then opted to submit a new mix design for approval that did not include the fly ash. Although this process was more costly for the supplier, it would prevent concrete loads from being rejected.
Sain is working on another CE&I project to replace a bridge on Old Opelika Road in Phenix City. The existing single span bridge over Mill Creek was built in 1928 and is 1,140 square feet. The new bridge will be 6,480 square feet. Utility relocations were a significant part of this contract and included about 800 feet of water line and 320 feet of sanitary sewer. Although bedrock was expected, boring was more challenging than the utility subcontractor had planned. After several different machines and drill bits attempted to bore through 200 feet of the hard rock, the subcontractor had to blast the rock and use the conventional open trench method on the sewer line.
Concrete pours have gone well on this project, with the supplier frequently having their management onsite during pours and progress meetings. Below are images during the concrete pour for the first bridge slab. ALDOT and the concrete supplier’s quality control personnel observed our team running tests.
