Dawson Spans Black Warrior River With $13M Bridge Job

The R. R. Dawson Bridge Company is the prime contractor on construction of a bridge across the Tuscaloosa River, bypassing the city of Tuscaloosa, AL, and has just been awarded a joint venture contract with RaCon Inc. to construct the rest of the bridge.

“We actually started the job in June of 2000,” said Bob Dawson, company owner. “We’re close to 50 percent done.

The bridge will be 133 ft. (41 m) above the water, Dawson said.

“There are 33 piers on the bridge,” he said, “and the first contract [for $13 million] is for piers 27 through 33. We got the contract for piers one through 27 about a week ago.”

The total length of the first part of the span is 1,040 ft. (317 m) and has six piers and one abutment in each of the northbound and southbound lanes.

There are three structural steel spans which cross the Black Warrior River, and three prestressed concrete beam spans in each lane.

Piers 27 through 30 are on drilled shaft foundations ranging in size from 12 to 9 ft. (3.7 to 2.7 m) in diameter. The drilled shaft subcontractor is Russo Corp. of Birmingham, AL. Piers 31, 32 and abutment 33 are on spread footing foundations.

The major equipment used on this project include two Manitowoc cranes, one 4100 and one 4000, both barge-mounted, which were used for the river portion of the project. Barges used on site were leased from McDonough Marine Service and Shugart Barges, which were company owned. One Link-Belt LS218H, 100 ton (90 t), one Link-Belt LS238H, 150 ton (135 t), one Link-Belt HC-228H, 125 ton (112.5 t) and one Grove 60 ton (54 t) rough-terrain crane were used for the land work. Other support equipment included a Cat D-6, Cat 950 loader, Cat 235 excavator and Grove Manlift.

The second Tuscaloosa East By-Pass project for $20.4 million, consists of work on Abutment 1 through Bent 27. The total length of the span is 2,830 ft. (863 m) with 25 piers and one abutment in each the northbound and southbound lanes. The piers and abutment are either drilled shaft, steel H-pile or spread footing foundations. There is one structural steel span and 25 prestressed concrete spans in each lane.

So far, the project only had a minor delay, Wayne Quertermous, chief engineer, said. “We had some high water this spring. Our subcontractor wasn’t able to drill shafts for a bit, but it has gone back down now,” he said.

The first phase of the Tuscaloosa East Bypass Bridge should be completed in spring 2002, he added.

“We are satisfied with the job. It is always nice to have a job of this size so close to our home office in Birmingham. When you get the second project that ties onto the first, that is always good,” Quertermous said.

Two Manitowoc cranes and barges will highlight the second phase of the project which was scheduled to start in May, as soon as the contract was officially awarded, Quertermous said.