US-17 Wilmington Bypass
Client: North Carolina Department Of Transportation
Location: Wilmington, North Carolina
Construction: 2001-2006
This project for the North Carolina Department of Transportation called for the construction of 4.25 kilometers of four lane divided highway around the north side of Wilmington, North Carolina. The project was fully funded by the State of North Carolina.
Included in the works were 2.3 kilometers of bridge structure spanning the Northeast Cape Fear River and adjoining wetlands. The bridge was designed with two distinct construction methods which included approach bridges utilizing precast girders with cast-in-place decks on either side of a main span consisting of two each cast-in-place cantilevered box girder elements. The 146.0 meter main span will provide a vertical clearance of 25.0 meters over the western navigation channel of the Northeast Cape Fear River. Both bridge structures are founded upon drilled shafts ranging from 1220 mm to 2439 mm in diameter installed to an average depth in elevation of -23.00 meters.
In order to minimally impact the environment, the NCDOT mandated that all construction activities be staged from temporary raised work platforms over the wetlands. As the following photographs demonstrate, GLF has taken steps to further minimize the environmental impact on the project by reducing the amount of temporary work platform by over 50% through the use of a railway and higher capacity cranes.
