The East End Bridge is a cable-stay bridge that connects Louisville and Southern Indiana over the Ohio River. The new span improves cross-river mobility and safety and alleviates traffic congestion in both Louisville and Utica, Indiana. It provides access for residents commuting between counties and enables travelers passing through the region to bypass the urban traffic of downtown Louisville.
To meet design and performance requirements for the cable-stay bridge with a Class A concrete finish, the project team turned to the expertise of PERI USA to engineer a custom solution for access and for the construction of the lower and upper legs and the roadway strut.
The PERI Experience
The East End Bridge consists of two 300-foot-tall portal-shaped pylons. In total, 104 stay cables weighing 1,000 tons support the 2,500-foot main span of the bridge. The project required a total of 24,000 cubic yards of structural concrete and 6,700 tons of structural steel.
For the lower legs, PERI designed a custom material and cycle time-saving formwork solution with VARIOKIT trusses and VARIO GT girder formwork. PERI’s approach had crews utilize a leapfrog method where forms and platforms leapt from segment to segment. The never-before-done design and method allowed the crew to rework standard rentable products and continue construction at a quicker pace.
Heavy-duty VARIOKIT trusses ensured the safe transfer of loads and supported high fresh concrete loads. VARIO girder formwork allowed for the individual selection and customization of components to suit specific requirements and continuous adjustments. Trusses were constructed on barges in the river and then flown into place with the tower crane.
The roadway strut top slab was formed with MULTIFLEX slab formwork, supported by MUTLIPROPS. MULTIFLEX provided flexibility, high load bearing for large spans, and tilt-resistant support from cross beams with Flexclips.
For construction of the 15 segments of the upper legs, crews used a hydraulic climbing device. The ACS Climbing System provided safe, horizontal working areas for crews with two-sided applications. The loads from fresh concrete were transferred via brackets into previously concreted sections by climbing anchors, delivering high load-bearing capacity. The self-climbing platforms climbed at an angle, following the portal shape of the pylons. Halfway up each pylon, temporary struts supported the pylons while forming.
PERI provided extensive engineering support to the project team, delivering drawing and solutions for forming requirements to ensure safe construction. On-site techs from PERI provided support throughout the project’s changing needs to ensure safe and efficient implementation and assist with changes needed.
Access Points
To maintain access to the towers throughout the project, the team utilized VARIOKIT access platform and PERI UP Stairs. The flexible PERI UP scaffold system allowed site adjustments to be made for occupational safety and ensured a non-slip, self-locking platform for crews.
A hundred-year flood impacted the area during construction, delaying the crew’s work and requiring the access system to be redesigned. Though no equipment or progress on construction was damaged, when the water level rose to historic levels, the original access platform was covered, and crews could not reach the pylon.
PERI USA helped to reconfigure access with additional scaffolding and bracing and a different stair tower location. Without additional delays, PERI supplied the supplemental product and helped the crew accelerate the construction process when they could return to work.
New Route
The East End Crossing opened to traffic on December 18, 2016, and will continue maintenance under the project construction team until 2051.
