Design of Integral Abutment Bridges for a Lateral Slide Replacement

Jacobs is completing the preliminary and detailed design of two bridge replacements on County Road 17 in Ontario, Canada using an accelerated bridge construction technique known as lateral slide (also known as slide-in-bridge or jack-and-slide) for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. The Hawkesbury Creek & CNR Overhead is a multi-span slab-on-girder structure spanning a creek and locomotive tracks. The Highway 34 Overpass is a single-span rigid frame structure spanning over the main road leading to the Town of Hawkesbury. The existing structures are approaching the end of their useful service life and rehabilitation is no longer a viable option. The new superstructures will be built on temporary supports located north of the existing structures. The new foundations consist of non-standard integral abutment details supported by composite caissons drilled through the existing roadway using temporary lane closures along County Road 17. This is an alternative to conventional integral abutment design which typically consists of a single row of steel H-piles. County Road 17 will be closed for up to four weeks to permit rapid demolition of the existing structures followed by the lateral slide. This is the first integral abutment lateral slide in the Province of Ontario. New design concepts, non-standard details and construction sequencing have been developed to achieve an economical, practical and robust design solution.