Tag Archive for: ABC

Benefits of Accelerated Bridge Construction and Bridge Kits

Benefits Of ABC

Bridge construction is essential to continue rapidly improving America’s infrastructure. With innovative building techniques and effective procedures, there are constantly new cost-effective ways to increase efficiency. That’s where the benefits of accelerated bridge construction (ABC) come into play.

Accelerated bridge construction is a complete shift in how bridges are planned by fully preparing materials to be installed at the bridge site. There are several benefits of accelerated bridge construction over traditional bridge construction — above all are safety, quality, social costs, and the environmental impact.

That’s why U.S. Bridge offers Bridge Kits as a solution for a quick construction time with the same high-quality durability our bridges are known for. Below, we explain the benefits of accelerated bridge construction and why it might be right for your next bridge project. Overall, these benefits reduce bridge construction costs by shortening project time.

Most Significant Benefits of Accelerated Bridge Construction

Here are some of the benefits of accelerated bridge construction:

  1. Shortened bridge project delivery time
  2. Reduce construction impact on traffic
  3. Increase work-zone safety
  4. Prefabricated components require less maintenance
  5. Lower environmental impact

#1: Shortened bridge project delivery time

This is why it’s called accelerated bridge construction — it’s faster than traditional methods. However, it’s equally if not more effective than traditional building.

With precise construction management, prefabricating the bridge parts, and shipping all the parts to the job site, bridge construction time is reduced significantly. With proper planning, bridge parts can be easily installed on-site. This saves time and money throughout the process by completing the project as quickly as possible.

#2: Reduce construction impact on traffic

Highway and other roadway work zones are hazardous for both motorists and for workers. However, as the condition of America’s infrastructure continues to decline, there continues to be long closures to critical roads across the nation. Moreover, this causes delays for everyday drivers, emergency vehicles, and local businesses can suffer from altered nearby traffic patterns.

Ultimately, traffic is unavoidable for Americans, but it can be made slightly better with ABC. With faster construction times thanks to prefabricated parts, construction can move from start to finish in a more timely manner.

#3: Increase work-zone safety

With extended road and lane closures comes increased risk for traffic accidents involving motorists and workers. Each year, there are 2,000 fatal accidents in work zones. With prefabricated parts and a plan to easily construct the bridge, there is less time spent with changes in traffic patterns. Additionally, it’s beneficial for workers on site.

“Now we’re also seeing safety benefits,” Bala Sivakumar, resident ABC expert at HNTB, said to ConstructionDive.com. “It’s a lot safer to do an ABC project because [workers] are not next to traffic or 50 to 100 feet above ground tying rebar or trying to pour concrete.”

#4: Prefabricated components require less maintenance

Prefabricated bridge components are engineered and manufactured specifically for Bridge Kits — our ABC solution. Thus, these parts go through a thorough quality control process to ensure they are ready for on-site construction. While on-site work is held to a high-standard, prefabrication is done in a controlled environment and removed from environmental elements.

With ABC and a thoroughly managed process, we can build bridges that last even longer than traditional building styles.

#5: Lower environmental impact

Another plus to shorter construction time is the significantly reduced impact on the environment. With less time with heavy equipment on-site, the impact to the surrounding environment is significantly reduced. As a result, building accelerated bridge construction lends itself to environmentally-sensitive areas.

Let’s Piece it Together

U.S. Bridge proudly delivers on long-lasting bridge construction projects around the world. We regard every detail of your bridge with a high level of attention and efficiency to ensure it’s high-quality.

With our Bridge Kits, we make bridge installation easy for teams who have the labor and equipment but need manufacturing and engineering. Now, we’re delivering everything needed for bridge construction right to job sites globally.

If you’d like to know more about our Bridge Kits and accelerated bridge construction, please contact us today for a free quote.

What Is Accelerated Bridge Construction?

What Is Accelerated Bridge Construction?

Bridges have become the key focus of U.S. infrastructure improvement. This work requires innovative building techniques and advancements in technology to ensure cost effective and efficient updates. Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) is one such technique.  Below we’ll define ABC and outline some of the benefits to using it over traditional bridge construction.

What is Accelerated Bridge Construction?

Using Accelerated Bridge Construction on a job means constructing bridge components off-site and then transporting them to the work site for installation. This off-site work allows for quicker project completion. Also, this faster completion time reduces the amount of disruption to surrounding areas during construction.

What are the Benefits of Accelerated Bridge Construction?

On top of reducing construction time and minimizing impact on the surrounding areas, ABC can also:

  • Reduce total project delivery time
  • Increase work-zone safety for the public
  • Decrease weather-related work delays

Why Use Accelerated Bridge Construction?

First, Accelerated Bridge Construction has the capability to significantly reduce the length of time needed to rehab the approximately 150,000 bridges that require maintenance. In addition to completing jobs faster, this technique decreases costly lane closures and detours, which often eat up a project’s budget and sometimes end up costing more than the project itself.

What are the Roadblocks to Implementing ABC?

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to using ABC as a preferred bridge construction method is the change in traditional processes. Consequently, businesses and departments will need to adjust the way they manage these projects; instead, they must adopt project planning tools that can better account for tracking and managing off-site fabrication of bridge elements. As a result, additional training may be needed to appreciate all the benefits of ABC.

U.S. Bridge, a leading fabricator of steel bridges throughout the U.S., is proud to employ ABC in its bridge building process. Recently, U.S. Bridge witnessed the benefits of ABC first hand when they completed a bridge installation project in 26 days using an SPS Bridge with modular design elements. For this project, bridge components were built off-site and transported to the location for installation, similar to ABC.

If you’d like to know more about Accelerated Bridge Construction, please contact us today for a free quote. U.S. Bridge is committed to using the latest bridge construction techniques while improving the U.S. infrastructure.