$290M turnpike bridge project in Beaver County proceeds '15 feet at a time'

Tim Swarrow isn’t afraid of heights — and that’s a good thing.

On a typical day, Swarrow, an assistant superintendent for the construction firm Fay, S&B USA, helps oversee work being done as much as 200 feet above the Beaver River near Beaver Falls. That’s where the Pennsylvania Turnpike is building two new bridges to carry about 25,000 vehicles a day.

“It’s always in the back of your mind, but you get used to it,” Swarrow said of the heights.

Swarrow’s nonchalance belies the challenges and complexity of the $290 million construction project, the largest contract in the turnpike’s history.

The two cast-in-place segmental concrete bridges being built in Beaver County are replacing a single steel-truss bridge that is about 75 years old and rated “structurally deficient.”

As the name suggests, the new bridges are being built one short segment at a time.

“We’re pretty much building this 15 feet at a time,” said Ryan Hurey, project manager for the New Stanton construction management firm ALCM.

Segments are built simultaneously outward from the top of each bridge pier in both directions to keep the structure balanced and stable. Workers pour concrete into temporary molds that hold the concrete in place until it hardens. Then the molds are moved ahead so the next segments can be constructed until they connect with sections being built from neighboring bridge piers.

“These types of bridges are atypical from what you normally see in Pennsylvania,” Hurey said. “For the turnpike, this will be just the third time they’ve built bridges in this fashion.”

Pennsylvania’s other cast-in-place segmental bridges include the Allegheny River Turnpike Bridge connecting Harmar and Plum in Allegheny County and the Mon-Fayette Expressway Bridge connecting Luzerne Township in Fayette County and Centerville in Washington County. The existing bridges opened in 2010 and 2012, respectively.

Building the bridges in small segments and casting the concrete on site offers several advantages, particularly when work is being done in challenging terrain that would make it too difficult to ship in large bridge pieces made off site, Hurey said.

“Just getting access to the river (and land beneath the bridge decks) was a feat,” Hurey said.

Workers had to grade and move nearly 2 million cubic yards of earth and then build narrow roads to gain the access they needed. They also have to contend with the Beaver River and railroad tracks on both sides of the river that are owned by Norfolk Southern and CSX, respectively. Shipping anything to the site by river wasn’t possible because of a spillway downstream of the construction site and a natural causeway upstream.

Each of the new, 1,645-foot-long bridges will be 70 feet wide. They’ll be able to accommodate three lanes of traffic, with one bridge handling eastbound motorists and the other handling westbound motorists. The existing bridge is 60 feet wide and carries two lanes of traffic in each direction.

The new bridges, about 20 feet higher than the existing one, are expected to last at least 100 years. Rehabbing the existing bridge would have extended its life by 50 years, while not allowing the turnpike to accommodate three lanes in both directions or significantly lowering the project’s cost, said Chuck Grabner, project executive for Fay, S&B USA.

In addition to the spans, the project includes building two new interchanges at the Beaver Valley exit (mile marker 13) and two new bridges over Route 18 as part of the new configuration.

The project, which started in November 2022, is scheduled to be completed in December 2027, Hurey said. The bridges along the turnpike mainline and new interchange should be open by early 2027. The remaining work will focus largely on demolition of the existing bridge.