Officials get a different view of Route 52
Boat tour provides a closer look of construction work
Nov, 03-2009 3:47 pm
By SHAUN SMITH
Staff Writer
SOMERS POINT – Capt. Brook Koeneke and first mate Michael Mulveen of the Duke O’Fluke took a different kind of boat trip Saturday as city officials joined managers of Route 52 Constructors for a closer view of the causeway construction project.
The second phase of the $251 million project will replace the two lift bridges at each end of the 76-year-old causeway with a fixed span, eliminate the Somers Point Circle and improve MacArthur Boulevard in Somers Point.
Phase 1, which cost $145 million, replaced 1.2 miles of the center portion of the causeway from Elbow Island to Garrett’s Island.
During this second phase, the state Department of Transportation will provide a new visitors center, bike lane, a sidewalk for pedestrians and several fishing piers.
Koeneke said he got the idea for the boat tour during the reconstruction of the Longport-Ocean City bridge.
“I watched the Longport-Ocean City bridge construction just from fishing in that area, and I learned a lot,” he said Monday, Nov. 2.
“I got acquainted over the radio with one of the tugboat operators on that job who was an Absecon native, and whatever I couldn’t understand, I’d meet this guy at the Anchorage after work and he’d explain things to me. It was kind of fascinating looking back on that experience, and I’m looking forward to one similar on this job.”
On Saturday, Joe Nestlerode, the project’s general supervisor, answered questions as Koeneke navigated the fishing boat around a 370-ton crane as it lifted a 94-foot, 46-ton concrete test piling.
Nestlerode explained that test piles are used to determine the weight-bearing capabilities of the soil and how deep each must be to support the weight of each pier holding up the bridge. They can be up to 130 feet long.
He said each pier is made up of eight to 17 piles, but typically there are around 10.
On a cold and windy morning on the Great Egg Harbor Bay, Nestlerode said the weather is an enemy to the crane operations. Staffers are continually monitoring the currents and winds – which must be less than 25 miles per hour for safe operation.
The boat of observers watched as a crane operator lifted one of the long 40-inch-square piles and carefully guided it into a steel tube template collar that was only two inches wider.
Nestlerode pointed out a member of the crew called a rover, who uses global positioning system surveying to ensure the pile is exactly on target and being driven into stable soil. Meanwhile, another member of the crew uses a level to test the pile.
All the members on the job are local union workers, except for management, and all are required to wear flotation devices. There are approximately 60 workers a day on the project, according to Nestlerode.
“Our number-one primary goal is to build the job safely,” Nestlerode said.
A yellow hose run up to the top of the pile is used to pump 160 pounds per square inch of water through the pile to flush soil and sand away, allowing it to smoothly sink into the sandy bottom.
“We use enough jetting to get it down, but not too much to create a void,” Nestlerode said. “If we go too deep we’ll hit the softer soils below.”
The piles are individually ordered to size depending on the results of weight-bearing tests.
“There is no sense in taxpayers buying piles 25 feet too long at $300 per foot,” Nestlerode said.
He said the piles are made of high-density concrete that is made with chemical additives that make it twice as strong as traditional concrete and will last approximately 50 years.
The Duke O’ Fluke also toured the Ocean City side of the project Saturday, where the test piles have already been driven and the bay is being dredged.
Koeneke said he learned a lot on the trip, and some of the city officials who attended said the same. Aboard were Council President Francis X. Cosgrove, council members Carl D’Adamo, Maureen Kern and Sean McGuigan, and Somers Point Office of Emergency Management coordinator Rob Cozen.
Ocean City officials were also invited; however, none came, which could be attributed to two cancellations due to bad weather, he said.
After the boat ride, Koeneke took a group of birdwatchers up the Great Egg Harbor River in search of eagles and hawks for his last trip of the season. He said afterward that they spotted a few.
The tour of the bridge construction was Koeneke’s treat.
“My intent was just to, you know, give back a little to each city. I’m going to try it again in the spring, and maybe with better weather there will be more of a turnout,” he said.
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