 
|
||||||||||||||||
              
|
The largest highway construction bonus ever offered in the region -- $574,000 -- is a tempting reward for finishing the first and most important phase of Fort Pitt Bridge repairs in 50 days. But it appears that the project’s prime contractor, West Mifflin-based Trumbull Corp., isn’t going to collect the jackpot. At least not all of it. Trumbull representatives told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that people should figure on bridge ramps opening "later, not sooner" under the 50- to 90-day timetable that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has established to rehabilitate and reopen the Interstate 279 South connection from the Fort Duquesne Bridge to the Fort Pitt Bridge.
Company officials said that while they would like to be more optimistic, they wanted to be credible. "Considering the amount of work to be done in such a restricted area, 50 days is unrealistic," said Kim Schultz, the Fort Pitt project manager for Trumbull. "I can’t say we’re counting on [the bonus]." Second, although Trumbull plans to flood the project with up to 70 workers at a time, working six-day weeks and 12-hour shifts, city noise ordinances will limit the work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Jackhammers, air compressors and other loud equipment must be shut down at all other times. Also, if Trumbull tried to use many more workers, "They’d be tripping over each other," Schultz said. "Having people on top of people wouldn’t get the job done any faster." PennDOT tried to get an exception so work on the project could continue until 10 p.m. daily, but Gateway Center apartment and condominium owners and the management of the Pittsburgh Hilton and Towers -- all virtually across the street from the work zone -- "were very, very emphatic" about observing an 8 o’clock construction curfew, said PennDOT project engineer Ken Andreatta. If Trumbull takes more than 90 days to complete the first phase of the Fort Pitt repairs, it will have to pay penalties of up to $14,350 a day. This year’s work is the most disruptive piece yet of the years-long rehabilitation of the Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel, conduits for 150,000 cars and trucks a day. News media focus has been on the half of the six-lane bridge that carries I-279 South traffic from the Fort Duquesne Bridge to the Fort Pitt Bridge, West Carson Street, Fort Pitt Boulevard eastbound and the Parkway East. The short bridge is called the "portal bridge," because the main access to Point State Park passes beneath it. Schultz thinks Trumbull can finish work on the portal bridge "somewhere between 50 and 90 days" and reopen it to Fort Pitt Boulevard and the Parkway East, earning part of the bonus: $8,050 a day for every day under 90 days. "Opening the portal bridge will be a big help," Andreatta said. "Every day under 90 days will be a blessing." But there’s another bridge that’s part of the current project. It’s a ramp that’s wide enough for two lanes but serves as a single lane, feeding traffic from the portal bridge onto the lower deck of the Fort Pitt main span, serving I-279 South through traffic. Trumbull thinks it may need close to the full 90 days to rehabilitate that span, which extends from the Fort Pitt Museum to the north shore of the Monongahela River. What’s so hard and involved about this project? Schultz, a professional engineer who lives in Bellevue, said work actually got under way two months ago, stabilizing the rock outcrops, repairing drainage systems, cleaning up accumulated debris and making other improvements at the tunnel portals. Replacing over-height truck detection and warning systems on the bridge and at the bottom of Green Tree Hill are part of the contract. Trumbull has also been making modifications to streets being used for 11 detours, erecting almost 2,000 signs, changing traffic signals, arranging for off-duty police and performing other tasks related to what engineers refer to as "maintenance and protection of traffic" in contract documents. The cost of trying to keep traffic and business delays and disruptions to a minimum is almost $4 million, or about 25 percent of the $16 million contract. Traffic requirements and specifications cover 107 large blueprint sheets. Overnight, an electrical contractor has been installing temporary power lines. Otherwise, when workers start to tear apart the portal bridge on Thursday, electricity would be cut off to the Fort Pitt Bridge and it would be without lights. Besides replacing the bridge decks and concrete parapets (shoulder walls), Trumbull has to sandblast and paint the steel superstructure (two coats). It has to rebuild the concrete ramps leading from Fort Duquesne Boulevard and the 10th Street Bypass to the Fort Pitt Bridge outbound. Then, starting about Aug. 1, Trumbull has 45 days to replace Liberty-Penn Avenue ramps leading to the Fort Pitt Bridge. Trumbull has hired more than 10 subcontractors, mostly specialists, to assist with the project. They range from Zenith Painting Co. to clean and paint the bridge to Abate-Irwin of Washington, Pa., to be the structural steel subcontractor. Trumbull has six full-time personnel, like Shultz, assigned to the project site and at the project field office off Ridge Avenue on the North Side, performing tasks such as ordering supplies, preparing payroll and supervising construction workers.
The carrot-and-stick approach PennDOT is using on the Fort Pitt Bridge repair project has been used in only a few other instances of road-bridge construction in the United States. The carrot is a maximum $574,000 in bonuses that the contractor can earn for finishing work and reopening ramps early. PennDOT has placed values on ramps that serve four major traffic movements around and through the Golden Triangle. The values are supposed to represent what it costs drivers to take detours. Called the "lane rental concept," it lets the contractor earn a daily bonus each day a ramp opens ahead of schedule. On the other hand, the contractor pays PennDOT a penalty for each day a ramp is not open on time. Here are the ramps that will be closed on Thursday; the daily bonus Trumbull can earn for completion in under 90 days; and the daily penalty that can be assessed against Trumbull if the work takes longer than 90 days"
|
|||||||||||||||
