J.R. Vinagro was contracted for demolition services as part of an Accelerated Bridge Construction project for the East Shore Expressway Bridge in Providence, RI. The project was under the state of Rhode Island’s Highways for LIFE (HFL) pilot program, created to emphasize and encourage innovative construction methods within the highway construction industry. Innovations under the program description included areas of technology, materials, tools, equipment, and procedures—the perfect approach for J.R. Vinagro.
One of the largest challenges of this project involved an accelerated timeline. Additionally, the new abutments for the replacement structure were already constructed in place under the existing bridge that J.R. Vinagro was contracted to demolish. This required extreme caution on the part of our teams to prevent damage to the new construction beneath our work area.
J.R. Vinagro worked at an accelerated pace to systematically downsize the existing bridge arches, while avoiding drastic failure of the structure. Work was successfully performed using large excavators and shears to demolish 10,000 square feet of concrete arch bridge within a timeframe of 80 hours. Demolition was executed flawlessly and maintained the ambitious overall project schedule.