Specialized Engineering

Owner:

Federal Highway Administration

General Contractor:

Kiewit Infrastructure South Co.

Client:

Brent Madden - Engineer

(770) 687-7504

Kiewit Infrastructure South Co.

Scope Of Work

The Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C is one of seven vehicular bridges connecting the District of Columbia and Virginia. It delivers approximately 68,000 vehicles — as well as thousands of cyclists and pedestrians — to their destinations every day. Ninety years of traffic, weather and age has taken its toll on the historical monument. In 2018, the National Park Service initiated a $227 million rehabilitation project, repairing the concrete arches and stone facades on the ten approach spans, replacing the bascule span’s steel superstructure, reconstructing the bridge deck, pedestrian access and resurfacing all travel lanes. With a compressed timeline, the team had a challenging job to preserve the historical integrity of the bridge and create engineering solutions to ensure it would be structurally sound for another 75 years.

Field Quality Control & Special Inspection Services/Field Quality Control Testing Services include soil/aggregate compaction, asphalt pavement, Concrete Compressive Strength, and latex-modified concrete (LMC) overlay material testing and bond strength verification testing.  Specialized Engineering also performed specialty field testing of underwater concrete placements utilizing “J” ring equipment. 

Laboratory Testing & Analysis Services included Drilled Concrete Core and Cylindrical Concrete Specimen Compressive strength testing per ASTM C-42 and ASTM C-39, Rapid Chloride Permeability per ASTM C-1202, Length Change of Hardened Concrete per ASTM C-157, Mortar Cube Compressive Strength per C-780 Annex 6 and testing of Ultra High-Performance Concrete (UHPC - 21,000 psi) per ASTM C-1856. NOTE:  Specialized Engineering is one of three accredited laboratories in the United States for ASTM C-1856.

Specialty Laboratory Services/Studies included completing the molding, storage, preparation, and chloride testing of the latex modified concrete (LMC) overlay materials for the bridge deck replacement with the project goal of reducing reinforcement corrosion. Samples were molded in required receptacles and were exposed to a sodium chloride solution for 90 days to simulate chloride exposure from de-icing solutions based on AASTHO T-259. The specimens were then prepared for water soluble chloride testing per ASTM C-1218 in incremental layers at variable depths to profile chloride penetration in the LMC material.  This information was utilized by FHWA and project designers to verify the materials resistance to chloride penetration and determine the effective use of the LMC material related to the expected extension of the structure’s overall life expectancy.  A total of 364 Water Soluble Chloride tests were completed for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of this project.