203 FEET ABOVE THE WATER!

203 FEET ABOVE THE WATER!

(Green Bay Press Gazette, Scott Cooper Williams)

(Department of Transportation, Jim Fowler, Frazer Chronicle)

 

That’s really high, 203 feet above a river…..not nose bleed high, but high enough that a fall would probably be your last. The Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge has a height of 203 feet above the Fox River on the north side of the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The most exciting events connected with the bridge (named to honor Leo Frigo, a civic philanthropic leader in the Green Bay area) was the occasional suicide jumper and closings for fog, high winds, and blizzards along with ice conditions.

I must have driven over the structure a thousand times during my twenty five years living in the city and I was aware of the effects of high winds…..especially when I’d drive my tractor-trailer over the bridge. However other than the winds or fog I never really gave traveling across the 1.51 mile a thought.

That however all changed on September 25, 2013, on or before 4:45 A.M. when Brown County 911 operators received multiple calls about sagging on the bridge. The bridge was closed at 5:30 A.M. local time by local law enforcement after investigations found a 400’ stretch of the bridge sagging approximately two feet along the east approach of the bridge along all lanes.

Further investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, pier number 22’s footing was found to have settled about 2’. Initially it was not known whether the pilings, which extend 100’ to bedrock, are still supporting the footings under the pier.

This double speak boils down to a very simple fact, a concrete and steel structure, for whatever reason the support mechanism that was supposed to keep the Frigo bridge in an upright position…..and to not allow any sagging activity…..failed. On October 3, 2013, initially the Wisconsin Department of Transportation released findings of a one week investigation that the sinking action was the result of corrosion on the pilings, and pier number 22, the corrosion was significant enough to cause buckling.

The Green Bay Press Gazette stated that the state’s highway department officials said that new testing proved that Green Bay’s troubled Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge is on solid ground…..despite records showing that few of the bridge’s original underground support beams were driven down into solid bedrock.

Newly released records of the bridge’s construction in the 1970’s, show that of the nearly 2000 vertical steel beams, fewer than 10% were driven to the limestone bedrock formation. In early design plans, it was recommended to drive the supports to the bedrock formation under the bridge.

I’M NOT AN EXPERT…..BUT

I’m not an expert, I’ve never worked for a bridge building company, I’m not a geologist, nor a construction engineer, but I do know how to ask questions…..and the short research that I’ve done on this subject, (bridge building) it would seem from what I’ve read, that the Frigo supports should have been driven to solid bedrock.

However officials with the Transportation Department, officials with a hell-of-a lot more experience than I have (I have none) say that new soil borings indicate that that the Frigo’s elaborate steel frame rests atop a hard layer of underground earth just as stable as when the bridge opened in 1981.

Okay…..if that was the case, how did the bridge sag by 24 inches in a day, or whatever the time-line was, anyways, when dirt and water are mixed together…..don’t they make mud. Are these transportation experts and officials trying to tell me that every time I drove across that bridge, I was driving on a bridge that was supported by mud…..possibly?

Something doesn’t sound quite right here, and then you have the outside expert, at least a geologist, from the University Wisconsin-Green Bay who hasn’t an ax to grind, holds no vested interest saying that “the fact that most steel beams were not driven down to bedrock (only about 200 of the 2000) might suggest that changing underground soil conditions could have caused some beams to sink into the ground. “If that happened under pier number 22, it could be happening elsewhere.” Yea like maybe mud.

DENNIS PAULI, JOHN LUCZAJ

Why is there always at least two different opinions about everything, don’t these experts ever get together, compare notes and settle on one particular answer that everybody can accept. According to Luczaj, the geologist at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay maintains that investigators of the bridge have not adequately checked all 51 piers hold up the bridge.

Luczaj further states that the theory reached by the investigating team is insufficient, there was very limited science, and the geologist also said that the findings were a rush to judgment. Of the 40 beams under pier 22, state officials acknowledged that they excavated and examined only three, partly out of concern that further investigation would delay the bridge’s reopening to traffic.

Can’t anybody remember the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge disaster in August of 2007, a bridge that I crossed in my semi at least 20 times. The bridge, built in 1965 and opened in 1967, suddenly collapsed on August 1, 2007, and took 13 lives and injuring 145. Although the Frigo and the I-35W have only one similarity, both are bridges over a river, the danger in under-inspection can result in a catastrophic disaster.

Work is scheduled to be completed sometime in January at a cost of $15 to $20 million dollars, of which the Federal Government will be picking up around 90% of the cost. Where does the other $3 to $4 million coming from…..maybe the Army Corp of Engineers, or the bridge construction company, and just because some engineer say’s that the clay dirt was as firm as a rock formation, do we have to take his word for it…..kind of like on blind faith.

There is a differing tone between what geologist Luczaj says, and former state highway engineer, Dennis Pauli has to say. Pauli oversaw construction in the late 70’s said that he is certain that investigators have correctly identified the problem and have done an adequate job of investigation.

Hummmmm…..let me see, what does that word mean…..adequate….sufficient, barely satisfactory, as much or as good as necessary, reasonably sufficient for starting legal action. I think that the final meaning of the word “starting legal action” might make adequate a poor choice of words.

Luczaj says that very little science is going into the equation of rooting out the problem as to the reason that the Frigo sunk two feet.

Pauli said that all the steel beams registered the required load-bearing capacity at construction time, 150 ton each, and that he agrees that the current issue is a combination of corrosion and buckling under pier number 22. Pauli also voiced confidence in the state highway department’s commitment to restoring the bridge to a safe operating condition. I can’t believe that they’d do anything half way.

WELL THERE YOU HAVE IT…..TWO DIFFERENT PROFESSIONALS, TWO DIFFERENT OPINIONS

You take all the information, all the facts, put um in a big hopper and blindly take a piece of paper with an opinion written on it. That’s no way to come to a fact based opinion, both of these guys, Pauli and Luczaj have undoubted knowledge and experience behind their opinion…..however…..more questions persist, like:

a. A preliminary design study found that limestone bedrock was located 100 to 140’ below the surface, was very competent, (strong and stable) and that the steel frame should be driven to that rock formation…..all of the beams, why weren’t they?

b. Why are the records of the pile-driven work jotted down by hand in a small engineer’s log-book?

c. Records of the 1949 beams that were driven into the earth identify only 130 reached a depth equal to where the bedrock was located?

d. Where there vugs (small cavity or vain in rock formation) in the bedrock formation?

e. Why is the state transportation people worried about the time it is taking for the repair project, shouldn’t safety be upper most in their minds…..remember I-35W!

Well there’s my take, or rather questions with regards to the Leo Frigo Bridge and the dipping problem it seems to have. I might be using an alternative route even after the Frigo reopens and is deemed safe by the experts.

HAVE A NICE DAY!