The Delaware Department of Transportation has taken note of the use of local contractors on the $20 million Interstate 495 bridge repair project.
Listed as suppliers were:
— East Coast Steel Erectors, New Castle
— Mumford and Miller Concrete, Middletown
— Talley Brothers, Newark
— Fortress Steel Services, Newark
— Diamond Materials, Wilmington
— Heritage Concrete, Wilmington
— Lewis Environmental Group, New Castle
— Tetra Tech, Newark
Local contractors had been unhappy that DeDOT had hired non-Delaware companies to manage the project.
Federal highway officials have blamed the dumping of soil in the area for causing bridge piers to move.
DelDOT reported that of the 32 steel reinforced concrete shafts that need to be installed below ground, three have been completed, three will have the final concrete pour on Wednesday and two are scheduled to have concrete poured on Thursday.
Inserting the steel rebar cages into the shafts prior to the concrete pours is a massive job. The cages arrive in sections, but are joined together to make one cage that is 150 feet long, weighing between 42,000 to 50,000 pounds. The construction crews use two cranes to lift the cages into the air and insert them into the steel tubes that line each hole.
After the cage is installed, crews can fill the entire shaft with concrete.
Because this process has many steps, crews have already completed or have started drilling each of the 32 shafts. The drilling operation is going well, the DelDOT release reported.
