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TX Llano River flooding OCT16 2018

The last time they fast tracked one was after the Blanco River/Wimberley Flood. The Fischer Store bridge was built on a 24/7 schedule and was back in service amazingly fast. The one outside of town was a conventional 5 day a week , but amazingly went up as quick and looking at it a better design...but that's my perspective.

I never really grasped how important this bridge was until I tried to go that way last week and had an hour reroute. Was such an automatic route, I forgot about it until I was committed to that route and had a :banghead moment.
 
bridge update and a ride

Took a ride out in direction on Kingsland to check out a new ride and eat location Saturday. It sits next to bridge and opened right before the collapse. The film crew who caught the moment of failure were on their deck. This place, Boat Town Burgers, will be a nice stop once all the mess is cleared and the bridge is open...the food is great, a bit pricey ,but not having the bridge is hurting business along with winter season.

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My usual route is the bridge, so had to go thru Llano after riding the Willow City Loop meeting the cow and suffer riding Inks Lake Park Road 4:evil Forgot about the big fire out there prior to the flood as well, different views of the pink granite hillsides with little vegetation. My picture didn't come out of the fire damage.

The crews are non stop and there are already three sets of pilings with bridge support in place on the Kingsland side.Long way to go. They said they were going to build from both sides, but the only thing I see on the south shore are two huge culverts laying on the ground currently. I got a stink eye trying to get close to the work zone...I'll bring a hardhat and yellow vest next time:whistle
They have the lake lowered as well for debris clean up, quite a mess in every direction.

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Then this was at fuel stop in Johnson City...an unusual sight. A McLaren Spider...the sound was F1 as he caught up with me and throttled up. I was more than happy to have that bright rabbit ahead of me in a heavily known patrolled area on US281...he wasn't on the side of road before I turned off...lucky fella.

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There was a fifteen second update on CBSAustin a few minutes ago, said they are placing first beams in a few days and plan on April completion. Digging into granite has to be slow!
I guess they will beam and deck as they go for worker and material access. Lot of back and forth on barges when I was watching from the burger bar. The original plan was still to meet in the middle, but not happening yet.

My I-cant fix rotated photo phone shot of the beam supports
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A McLaren Spider... I was more than happy to have that bright rabbit ahead of me in a heavily known patrolled area on US281...he wasn't on the side of road before I turned off...lucky fella....

It doesn't get better than having a McLaren as your scout....:)

I somehow missed this thread last October; thanks for posting. We had our big one in 2013; the greatest natural catastrophe in Canadian history.
 
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They were not onsite during my spy visit.

The one I watched them place was lifted from the semi that delivered it.

I watched about 5 minutes this morning and they were getting ready to lower a rebar cage for a piling.
I wonder if those big pipes you saw were the casings they used when drilling?
 
Just took a quick look at the video.
Appears a pump truck is pouring concrete in one of the piling.
 
Looks like they're making good progress.
Bottom mat of deck steel is almost done on the first section of the deck.
They are probably also placing the top mat but can't see that area anymore.
At least one more piling cap has been poured.
Can't see through the drill rigs to see how many piling are done.

Is it common in southern states to not use green epoxy coated steel in bridge construction?

The camera is interesting. I watch a couple minutes each day to see what's going on.

I'm surprised non of the workers moon the camera :rofl
 
Haven't looked in a few days, they are moving along for sure.

Do not recall seeing coated steel around area on any project. Maybe lack of seasonal road salt?
Read somewhere the decision to let bare steel oxidize was a natural protection on some big projects here when it was noticed by a lot of folks.
The iconic Pennybacker (Loop 360) bridge is a paint free structure and had some folks upset when it was left natural on purpose.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennybacker_Bridge

Those large pipes I saw on south shore do look like the casings they are drilling into...just looked very long for the depth I assumed the river was at that point:scratch
 
Looks like they're making good progress.
Bottom mat of deck steel is almost done on the first section of the deck.
They are probably also placing the top mat but can't see that area anymore.
At least one more piling cap has been poured.
Can't see through the drill rigs to see how many piling are done.

Is it common in southern states to not use green epoxy coated steel in bridge construction?

The camera is interesting. I watch a couple minutes each day to see what's going on.

I'm surprised non of the workers moon the camera :rofl

Re: Rebar.
Not really but it depends on the location. The new bridges on the 18 mile stretch and the one over Jewfish Creek in the FL Keys all got constructed using epoxy coated rebar. The older ones from the 80's not so much and they are all being reinforced as we speak. Most new buildings like the schools and hospitals are built using the good stuff too. Salt in the air will over time permeate the concrete and attach the steel within.
I had to fix quite a few columns on my house as the steel used was cheap.
In the old days unscrupulous contractors would use saltwater to mix the concrete with so many homes are falling apart.
 
Do not recall seeing coated steel around area on any project. Maybe lack of seasonal road salt?
Read somewhere the decision to let bare steel oxidize was a natural protection on some big projects here when it was noticed by a lot of folks.

I figured you got enough freezing weather that the DOT would salt the bridges.
Maybe it does not happen enough to be a issue.

You're right about exposed steel being left bare on some structures now.
 
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