Fracture Critical Inspection

This project included the inspection of three long-span bridges located near Covington, KY, and 38 medium-span bridges in Jefferson, Oldham, and Henry Counties, KY. The long-span and medium-span bridges encompassed a variety of bridge types; including a double deck cantilevered through truss, a through truss tied arch, simple-span through truss, deck truss, two-girder systems, and multi-girder systems. The long-span bridges vary in length from approximately 2,200 feet to over 4,000 feet, while the medium-span bridges vary in length from approximately 64 feet to 1,100 feet.

Inspection of the long-span bridges included an arm’s length/hands-on inspection of the following areas: all truss fracture critical members, suspender connections to truss members and floorbeams, all floor system members located directly below deck expansion joints, all floor connections to the lower chords, all pins, all fatigue prone details (category E and E’), all bearing assemblies atop substructure units, and areas of significant problems noted in previous inspection reports. In addition, each bridge received a deck walk-over inspection.

In addition to aforementioned inspection areas, inspection of the medium-span bridges included an arm’s length/hands-on inspection of all longitudinal stiffeners, all end diaphragm connections to girders, and all intermediate diaphragm connections to girders.

Subsequent to the field inspections, Palmer Engineering authored a bridge inspection report that included condition ratings for the bridge in accordance with NBIS, summary of significant findings, and listed recommended repairs for each of the 41 bridges. Palmer Engineering also prepared repair plans for a steel girder on one of the District 5 Bridges with extensive collision damage that was discovered during the inspection. This project was completed in 2007.