ASCE Met Section Spring Seminar - Session 2

Thursday, May 21 - 5:00-6:30PM

Balanced Construction Engineering for Rehabiliation of the Wurts Street Suspension Bridge

Speaker: Wei Wang, Ph.D., P.E.

Rehabilitation of the Wurts Street Bridge (Kingston–Port Ewen Suspension Bridge, 1921) required a construction engineering strategy that explicitly addressed the load-path sensitivity inherent to this historic suspension bridge. UrbanTech served as Construction Engineer, developing the construction means and methods for rehabilitation of the stiffening trusses and full replacement of the concrete deck while maintaining stresses in the stiffening truss members within a minimal range to avoid adverse effects on the overall structural system. The original bridge design required that, under dead load, axial stresses in the stiffening truss members remain approximately zero; therefore, preserving this fundamental structural behavior during construction was critical.

UrbanTech implemented an innovative balanced construction procedure designed to maintain near-zero force conditions in the stiffening trusses throughout demolition, truss rehabilitation, and deck replacement operations. Detailed staged-construction analyses were performed to evaluate force redistribution, hanger tension variation, secondary bending effects, and global geometric response at each phase. A temporary counterweight system utilizing calibrated water tanks was introduced to maintain consistent dead load during deck removal and placement, thereby balancing forces in the main cables, suspenders, and trusses. Analytical acceptance thresholds for stress variation and deformation were established to guide sequencing refinements, controlled material removal, and coordinated deck placement, minimizing unintended load transfer within the suspension system.

This project demonstrates the critical technical role of construction engineering in long-span bridge rehabilitation, where temporary conditions frequently govern structural risk. By integrating nonlinear system behavior, analytical phase modeling, and field implementation constraints into a cohesive methodology, UrbanTech preserved structural integrity while executing major component replacement. The lessons learned are broadly applicable to load-sensitive bridge systems where analysis-driven construction planning is essential to maintaining performance and extending service life.

Thursday, May 21 - 7:00-8:00PM

InQuik Bridging Systems

Speaker: Stephanie Baez, EIT

The InQuik system is a proprietary method of design and construction for short-span highway bridges, comprising of semi-modular bridge components. With the use of stay-in-place forms that are self-supported by rebar, these bridge components do not require falsework. InQuik was patented in Australia and founded in 2017, introducing a unique method for accelerated construction to the bridge industry. This method entails pre-assembling and integrating the formwork with reinforcement off-site, then transporting them to site where concrete is poured.

In Australia, the system was certified by SMEC and successfully installed on over 100 bridges. Seeking to enter the US bridge market, InQuik identified the need to have the design of their bridge system checked for compliance with the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) standards by a Professional Engineer licensed in the U.S. Arup was thus appointed to perform design verification to US codes.

In addition to the AASHTO verification, Arup has performed verifications to various state DOTs as well as individual certifications of the InQuik components used in site-specific projects in the U.S. As it is a modular system, InQuik components make up a ‘catalogue’ including ‘deck panel unit’, headstock, abutment, and wingwall options. Various spans are achievable, ranging from 20ft to 60’-8”. Because of this catalogue and the wide range of possible bridge articulations, the verification of InQuik components required an automation workflow for the hundreds of sectional checks. This presentation will discuss the bespoke InQuik design and verifications, challenges encountered and successes of using said automation.

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