East End Bridge
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 and cycle time-saving formwork solution with VARIOKIT trusses and reinforcing VARIO GT girder formwork. PERI’s approach had crews utilize a leapfrog method where forms and platforms were stacked on the previous pour’s formwork. 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, Using VARIO GT24 girders. The girders were attached to the truss using Flexclips, which allowed the entire assembly to be lifted into place with a crane.
For construction of the 15 segments of the upper legs, crews used a hydraulic climbing device. The ACS Climbing System provided safe, working areas for crews to access the formwork and prepare it for concreting or prepare it for jumping to the next pour. The loads from fresh concrete were transferred via brackets into previously concreted sections by climbing anchors, with high load-bearing capacity. The self-climbing platforms climbed at an angle, following the incline of the pylons.
PERI provided extensive engineering support to the project team, delivering drawing and solutions for forming requirements to ensure safe construction. PERI delivered solutions 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 Stairtowers. 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.
Since the water levels rose to historic levels, the original access stair tower was inaccessible, and crews could not reach the pylon.
Without delay PERI USA designed a new access point in collaboration with the contractor, and then supplied the supplemental product to keep the project on schedule.
New Route
The East End Crossing opened to traffic on December 18, 2016.
