Precast Projects Done Right.

Location: Fairfield, CA

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.

The first span of the project had a 230 KW live powerline obstruction 59 feet 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 feet of clearance from the top of the crane boom.

Lucia (Monterey County), California

KIE-CON fabricated and installed 59 EA custom-shaped girders to serve as a “rock shed” for cars traveling up and down the coast. The project was the first of its kind in Northern California and ensures that boulders sliding off the mountainside will deflect off the shed and protect vehicles in the often-traveled Big Sur portion of the California Coast.

The fabrication faced the unique challenges of constructing a soffit for the arch in each girder, along with completing an architectural finish for the exposed girders. The project was installed over four consecutive nights. This required immense shipping and installation coordination to complete the project without a hitch as each girder traveled over 200 miles each trip from the KIE-CON yard to the job site.

Santa Rosa, California

The 78-inch tall by 160-foot long span Wide-Flange Girders, used in the replacement and widening of the Porter Creek Road Bridge in Santa Rosa, California, was at the time of fabrication, the longest non-spliced precast girders in the state of California. Originally, the girders were designed to be cast-in-place, but they were value-engineered (CRIP) to precast after KIE-CON determined the size of the girders to be adequate for precast fabrication. The precast girder solution eliminated the need for any falsework in the creek, which is an environmentally sensitive habitat, thus significantly reducing the contractor’s field schedule.

During the value engineering design phase, it was discovered that the girders had to travel under an existing historical monument just one mile west of the bridge; this monument was a major factor in determining the maximum height of the girders. The girders traveled from the KIE-CON facility in Antioch, California to the job site through 107 miles of narrow and winding roads, while passing through seven major freeways, and numerous on and off-ramps on the always congested Northern California freeways. Girders were then installed by two cranes, 600 and 375 tons respectfully, lift.

San Francisco, California

In order to prepare for the America’s Cup sailing races, the City of San Francisco upgraded its premier marina, West Marina Harbor, the location of the finish line for the races. The project consisted of 272 EA precast floats and 182 EA piles.  All were shipped by barge from KIE-CON’s, facility for easy offload access.

To protect the marina from incoming swells and changes in tide, 5 EA precast wave attenuators were also incorporated into the project. These mammoth floats weigh approximately 125 tons, 9-foot tall, 15-foot’ wide and 45-foot’ long. These attenuators were secured to the marine floor by anchors through the precast that tied to precast floats on the bay floor.

Oakland and Yerba Buena Island, California

With the completion of the new east span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, the old bridge needed to be removed. The removal of the bridge was broken into two phases; remove the main steel truss structure of the bridge and demolish the piers. Using value engineering, the owner determined it would be more cost-effective to utilize the piers closest to the shore by functioning as pier caps for a pedestrian walkway and observation deck of the Oakland skyline.

The design implemented precast, prestressed box girders and precast bent caps. Due to the proximity to the waterline, purple epoxy rebar and epoxy coated (grit impregnated) strand were used in the precast in the members that weighed up to 154,000 pounds.

One of the major benefits of KIE-CON fabricating the precast for the project is our facility’s barge slip, which is located on a waterway that leads to the San Francisco Bay. This allowed for the precast to be shipped via barge directly to the job site and eliminated trucking and double handling costs for the contractor.

Siskiyou County, California

Ft. Goff Creek Bridge, located by an isolated campground in Siskiyou County, California. West of Mount Shasta, was an accelerated bridge construction project that contained many geometric and architectural challenges.  It consisted of 6 EA 50-ton abutments with external closure pour walls on the perimeter, 9 EA 58-foot voided slabs and 4 EA 12-foot tall Wing Walls with a custom architectural finish.

The project was installed in 2 phases, but the entirety of the precast bridge was completely erected in one week.  Challenges to the project included fabricating custom abutment forms for the closure pour walls, securing galvanized CMP pile cap embed and the shipping and erection of the bridge itself.

Richmond, California

Part of the East Bay Regional Park restoration project included a 1.5-mile extension of pedestrian and biking trail along the Richmond, California shoreline. The trail extension required a new elevated pedestrian pathway to be constructed in order to allow access over environmentally sensitive marshland.  The project was originally designed with precast pile, precast bent caps, precast hollow core and a cast-in-place topping slab and custom curb to tie the entire system together.

The general contractor and KIE-CONrecognized some construction challenges that the topping slab and custom curb would present. The first one was pouring the topping slab and curb over the environmentally sensitive marshland. The second was that this work would increase the duration of the overall project. Taking that into consideration, the topping was redesigned with 12-foot, 4-inch wide by 45-foot long precast prestressed waffle slabs with an aesthetic broom finish in order to eliminate the need for a topping slab. One of the other major benefits with the solid slab was that inserts would be installed on the side of the solid slabs so that the handrail could be attached to the exterior of the solid slabs, eliminating the need for a custom curb. The project was completed early, and the owner was very pleased with the accelerated project schedule and the final aesthetics of the pathway.

South San Francisco, California

This project was a cast-in-place to a precast redesign of the Oyster Point Ferry Terminal’s ramps and docks. The ramps and docks were fabricated in our Antioch, California plant and barged to the job site and installed by the general contractor over piles.

Consisting of many unique pieces that were designed to piece and fit together in the field, this job required much coordination and logistical support to ensure that all pieces fit together correctly.  KIE-CONfabricated and shipped all components of the project in a stringent three-month span dating back to the date of contract agreement, a large accomplishment in itself.

Moss Landing, California

Moss Landing Harbor is an important California fishing port located in the center of Monterey Bay, California.  Due to years of strong current and wave action, boating bumps and bruises, and severe El Nino storm surges, 7 EA existing floating fingers with wooden whalers on a multiple pod system failed and were removed and replaced with new custom monolithic precast floating dock fingers.

This emergency project consisted of retrofitting new precast fingers to the existing main floats in the same location as the old fingers. Through numerous site visits and planning, an as-built of the existing float system was completed and used to design connection details from the new floats to the older floats.  Using custom connector brackets and some ingenuity, a plan was developed and implemented to match new monolithic floats to the pod system. The floats were effectively secured with new pile hoops without the removal and driving of new pile.

Through strong supplier relationships, KIE-CON was able to have materials expedited, floats cast and shipped via truck over 150 miles to be offloaded in the water.  From there, the KIE-CON field crew was able to safely install the new floats to the existing ones, while the harbor remained fully operational with its typical vessel traffic.  Through strong coordination and working exclusively with the harbor staff, KIE-CON was able to complete full installation on this emergency response project in a month’s time from approval of the project.

Tuolumne, California

KIE-CON provided precast elements for a new four-story hotel located in the Sierra Nevada foothills that services visitors to the Black Oak Indian Casino. KIE-CON designed, fabricated and installed an 8-inch hollowcore flooring and ceiling system, supported by 8-inch cast-in-place walls.  Also, included were cantilevered post-tensioned solid slabs, some of which were two-tiered in-depth, which served as main window landings for the hotel. One major challenge was shipping the 506 EA plank from KIE-CON’s precast facility through the windy roads of the foothills.  Each floor was installed inefficient time and expedited the construction schedule allowing the hotel to open two months early.

Location: Sonoma and Marin Counties, California

Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit is a new rail transit system in the North Bay Area of California. The project included 11 EA different retrofit upgrades to existing rail bridges or new construction over the numerous canals and creeks.  The project was designed with precast, accelerated bridge construction in mind, to speed up construction and reduce effects to rail operations.

KIE-CON fabricated abutments, bent caps, wing walls, solid slabs and double box girders, which eliminated any major cast-in-place construction. The solid slabs and double box girders included a secondary precast curb pour back, which greatly reduced environmental impacts for the general contractor. The components are connected through a galvanized embed system including welded plates, tie rods and embedded cans that helped piece the components together and expedite construction.

Vallejo, California

KIE-CON fabricated five custom “super floats” for the WETA’s new North Bay Operations and Maintenance Facility.  The facility is used for fueling, berthing space and passenger loading for the San Francisco Bay Ferry.

The floats themselves were 7-foot’,4-inch” deep x 124-foot’, 0-inch” long x 11-foot’- 6 inch” wide and weighing up to 335,000 pounds. The floats contained eight large ballasting chambers that can be utilized to adjust the freeboard of the floats. Steel plates with high strength studs were fabricated into the design for the mechanical systems and access platforms to fasten to the floats. 2-foot’, 0-inch” deep precast ballast solid slabs that weighed up to 100,000 pounds themselves were also incorporated into the design to help reduce float lifting weight and limit freeboard while operational. Stainless steel couplers, with no location tolerance, were cast into the slabs and secured to the floats via rods through sleeves from the top of the float in a KIE-CON barge slip. The slabs were held underwater while the general contractor positioned the floats to secure the rods from the floats to the slabs prior to towing.

Concrete weight was designed to stay under 115 PCF and the floats were strategically staged so cranes could maneuver and lift floats into the water in one mobilization.