Large bridge contract for HBG in California, USA
Rijswijk, the Netherlands – FCI Constructors, Inc. [a division of HBG Constructors, Inc.], in joint venture with Kiewitt Construction and Manson, has been awarded the contract for the replacement of the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which stretches from Yerba Buena Island to Oakland. The contract value for this project is more than €1.1 billion, of which HBG's share is €290 million.
The client is the California Department of Transportation [Caltrans]. The existing San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is 2.8 kilometres long and was built in 1936. After the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 – when part of the upper deck collapsed – California decided to build a new eastern span. Currently the western section of the bridge is being retrofitted for seismic safety.
The project includes the construction of two parallel pre-cast segmental bridges, each 2,100 metres long and 27 metres wide. Both bridges have 226 segments with a segment weight of up to 800 tonnes. The bridges are supported on 28 piers founded on 160 steel-shell concrete piles, 2.5 metres in diameter and 95 metres long. The bridge is scheduled to be completed in 1000 work days, early in 2006. Then the old bridge, which currently carries approximately 280,000 vehicles a day, will be demolished.
At present HBG Constructors is involved in the construction of the New Carquinez Suspension Bridge, northeast of San Francisco. This bridge will be completed at the end of next year. The seismic retrofit of an existing structure, the nearby Benicia-Martinez Bridge, has been carried out by HBG Constructors in joint venture with its sister company Interbeton and is nearing completion. Work has also commenced on the Cooper River cable-stayed bridge near Charleston, South Carolina, in joint venture with Skanska.
Together these contracts confirm HBG's position as a leading bridge constructor in the United States.
Further information:
Arno C. Pronk at HBG Public Relations, telephone +31 70 3722121.