The Vacaville/Fairfield Train Station, Peabody Road Overcrossing was a very successful project that showed the strong benefits of precast concrete on wide-flange girders (CA WFG) on a bridge. This was a 3-span bridge consisting of 24 each of 48-inch” CA WFG up to 100-foot’ span over an active railroad and under a 230 KW powerline.
Contract drawings initially called for two spans consisting of 11 rows of 5-foot’ tall precast “I” and exterior rectangular girders, and one span of cast-in-place box girders under the power-line. Through value engineering, KIE-CON was able to demonstrate cost and schedule savings and constructability improvements by converting the “I”, Rectangular, and cast-in-place box girders to CA WFG. This eliminated three girder lines and reduced the structure depth by 12 inches” thus providing the client with an extra 12 inches” of height clearance.
KIE-CON was also able to demonstrate to a primarily cast-in-place contractor, the savings and constructability advantages of converting the cast-in-place span over to precast concrete. The ability to set girders under powerlines in a day accelerated the construction schedule by a full two months.
The first span of the project had a 230 KW live powerline obstruction 59 foot’ above the ground. Through some brainstorming with the erector on the project, the girders were able to be set using two cranes with rolling outriggers while maintaining 21′ foot of clearance from the top of the crane boom.
