West Girard Avenue Bridge: Winner of a 2024 PCI Design Award
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West Girard Avenue Bridge: Winner of a 2024 PCI Design Award

Heidelberg Materials is proud to have supplied slag cement for a bridge that received a 2024 PCI Design Award in the category “Transportation Award: Best Bridge with a Main Span up to 75 Feet.” The short-span bridge is part of West Girard Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its tight urban location—sandwiched between on- and off-ramps for Interstate 76 and crossing over a CSX freight railroad—led engineers for the bridge replacement project to choose precast concrete as a fast, efficient construction solution.

With utilities and electrical ducts being a consideration, initial construction involved placing a precast concrete plank beam at the outer edge of the structure to support a new water line. For the bridge deck, three 8.5-ft-wide and seven 10-ft-wide NEXT D precast concrete beams saved time compared to cast-in-place concrete. Each of the beams was designed with a nonstandard height to achieve the proper clearance over the railroad. Construction time was further reduced by integrating curbs and exterior barriers into the precast concrete beams and allowing them to serve as formwork for the sidewalks.

Two lanes of traffic and one sidewalk on West Girard Avenue were maintained throughout construction.

Precast concrete beam installation took place in November 2022 in two separate stages.

“Slag cement supplies performance and sustainability advantages, making it a well-established supplementary cementitious material that is a great choice for infrastructure projects such as the award-winning West Girard Avenue Bridge,” said Larry Rowland, Sustainability Market Manager, Heidelberg Materials.

Watch the PCI award video here.

Project Team:

  • Owner: Pennsylvania Department of Transportation District 6
  • Engineer of Record: Michael Baker International
  • General Contractor: Neshaminy Constructors
  • Precast Concrete Producer: PennStress
  • Slag Cement Supplier: Heidelberg Materials