Route 2 Richmond Bridge - 2025

ECI's Client: Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans)

Completion Date: September 2025

ECI was contracted by VTrans to replace and then remove Bridge 29 which carries Route 2 across I-89 just south of Richmond Village. The goal of this project was to replace the existing 1964 8-span bridge with a new 2-span off-alignment bridge. This was a 3-year project that started in May of 2023 and was completed in September of 2025. The project was split into three years with the following goals.

Year 1: Stormwater systems, substructures, MSE walls and embankment fills

Year 2: Crossover construction, steel erection, bridge deck construction, shifting traffic onto the new bridge, and removal of the existing structure

Year 3: Crossover removal, completion of phased stormwater systems installed in year 1, landscaping, and site restoration

With a jobsite that was separated by an interstate and restricted lane closures that had to be picked up daily at 3pm this project required intense coordination between the various multi-discipline crews.

Year 1

Although existing utilities on the jobsite were simple compared to many of the urban projects ECI undertakes, they still seemed to interfere with every headwall and culvert we were contracted to install. A good relationship with Consolidated, Waitsfield Telecom, Vermont Gas and Green Mountain Power allowed for quick and simple fixes to most conflict issues. A concrete encased duct bank now runs for a total of 342 LF beneath Route 2 containing two 8” power conduits and two 2” communication conduits. Custom designed conduit spacers made for fast and easy installation.

The Abutment 1 approach was backfilled to finish grade and the backwall and wingwalls were backfilled to their final condition. This proposed section of Route 2 then received its first course of pavement which served two purposes, securing the sub-grade from future disturbance, and providing a clean/usable laydown area for the next phase of the project.

Our crew supported Suncoast Reinforcing LLC tying the rebar for the center pier in August of 2023. We used an EFCO gang form system for both the pier stem and cap.  This specific gang form system allowed for on-the-ground assembly which helped increase production rates and kept our crews safe as they worked in the median of the interstate. 10 days after the forms arrived our concrete crew had the pier stem formed, braced and poured. Once cured the forms were stripped and reused in a different configuration for the pier cap. The cap was built on the ground and then flown into position with the crane. It took our crew along with Suncoast Reinforcing LLC 15 days to tie the cap rebar, close up the forms, add the internal form work and pour the cap.

To give a bit of perspective: It took our crew, which averaged 7 people, a total of 67 business days from beginning the underground footing to having the pier complete.

We worked closely with Reinforced Earth Company to design a MSE (Mechanically Stabilized Earth) wall to support the bridge on the East side. Once the wall geometry was finalized, ECI went to work defining the limits of excavation, and designed the excavation support system to facilitate it through our in house engineers. Between the dimensional ratio of the strips, which extended 28’ into the steep bank and the footing steps, this component of the project resulted in a huge earthen cut that required a major excavation support system and sequencing plan. Excavation for the wall, construction of the SOE system, pile driving, construction of the MSE wall system itself, and the large abutment it supports was an all-hands-on-deck mission, and nearly every crew in the Bridge Group was involved at one point or another, and sometimes simultaneously. The excavation support system consisted of a 3,690 SF Shotcrete Wall that was constructed over the course of 5 different lifts and was restrained with 2,125 LF of soil nails. Once the 2,200 CY of material was excavated and ledge was removed to make room for the galvanized strips mentioned above, the first few courses of MSE panels were set and backfilled. This created a flat surface to drive the H-piles into. Working around these H-piles for the remainder of building the MSE wall proved to be a continuous challenge, which was overcome with some clever backfilling techniques and a lot of manpower. But it was necessary to drive the piles when there were only a few panels were set as driving pile through the sleeves and risking alignment issues and strip damage was not an option. Not only did H-piles pass through multiple layers of the MSE Wall strips but a concrete encased duct bank had to navigate between these layers and penetrate the backwall.

Year 2

Before we could erect the (2) 188’ long curved steel plate girder spans, interstate traffic needed to be shifted into a single barrel with crossovers on either end of the project.

The curved girders were 7' tall and are comprised of 4 parts weighing about 77,000 lbs each. Due to the curvature, they are unstable individually which added a lot of complexity. ECI subcontracted CCS out of Morrisville to erect the steel, while our crews and crane focused on bolting, splicing and installing the cross frames.

The first phase of erection over the southbound lanes began by aligning two girders on the ground and connecting them with their intermediate cross frames. Once assembled, a 250-ton and a 200-ton crawler crane performed a tandem pick, lifting the double-girder section and holding it precisely over its bearings on the pier. A 275-ton Grove AT crane—carefully positioned partially beneath the existing bridge—then hoisted the next girder, which was spliced in midair. After that connection was secured, a 264-ton Liebherr AT crane lifted the final girder in the sequence for the last aerial splice. With all four girder sections suspended, our operator Nick stepped in using the 138 HSL lattice crawler crane equipped with 160 feet of boom to set the cross frames between the girders while the other cranes held everything steady. The entire sequence was executed flawlessly in a single shift.

Phase two over the North Bound lanes was a little less stressful as two of the cranes were not needed so all that was left was to have CCS’s crawlers each erect a beam while ECI made the splice and attached the cross frames with our 138 HSL Lattice Crawler Crane. Once all 8 beam pieces and cross frames were in place guys would go up in man baskets to bolt everything together utilizing electric torque wrenches and Direct Tension Indicator (DTI) washers that would signal when the necessary tension was achieved, which occurred around 700 ft-lbs of torque.

In total we placed over 1,000,000 lbs of American steel in 10 business days!

For the deck we used stay-in-place metal forms (SIPMFs) between the flanges of the interior girders. To install the SIPMFs, our crew first meticulously welded angles along the top flanges of the interior steel girders. Following behind the welding team, another crew installed the corrugated metal deck pans that made up the SIPMF system.

To protect the traveling public, no work was allowed to occur over live traffic. We used the crossovers whenever possible, but due to the nature of the work, we eventually proceeded with daily lane closures. This required close coordination among all crews working on the structure.

We subcontracted with Suncoast Reinforcing LLC of Mansfield, OH to install more than 90 tons of deck reinforcing steel, and with Parent Construction of Hinesburg, VT to place and finish the concrete deck. ECI supported both subcontractors with crane operations and labor—providing up to 20 employees to assist with the deck placements.

The bridge deck was poured in three separate sections, each consisting of approximately 160 CY of concrete. Each pour began around 4:30 a.m. and continued into the evening until all equipment was cleaned and the deck was properly cured. Once the concrete was cured we brought in J.P. Hogan from Staten Island, NY to remove ½” of the deck to create traction on the exposed concrete deck.

Once the bridge was open to traffic Sessler Wrecking of Waterloo, NY was subcontracted to carry out the demolition of the old bridge.  Given the deteriorated state of the existing structure, which was regularly shedding already-spalled concrete, we opted to use rolling roadblocks to further ensure public safety. To keep the travel lanes clear, we deployed a ground crew to regularly sweep the interstate and remove any debris that fell outside the designated work zone. This was tedious and slow work, but once the bridge span was split into two sections, progress accelerated significantly. The demolition was completed in just 26 days.

Year 3

We completed miscellaneous steel installation, removed the crossovers on I-89, paved the wear coat on the new bridge, finished phased storm water installation and restored all the disturbed earth back to pre-construction conditions.

Notable contract quantities include over 1,000,000 lbs of structural steel, 320,000 lbs of reinforcing steel, 1,600 cy of concrete, 24,000 cy of earth borrow, 3,600 tons of asphalt, and if we laid out all the welding done it would be approximately 315’ all within 1/8” of the designed thickness.

We want to give a special shout-out to the project superintendent Phil and to the 120 employees who worked on this project both in big and small ways. Your hard work and dedication made this project possible and without you this project would not have won the AGC/VT 2025 Best Builder Award for Heavy Highway New Construction.