New Grasselli Access Road

The New Grasselli Access Road is a 498 ft., four span continuous, horizontally and vertically curved steel girder bridge with concrete structural deck, approaches and appurtenances; sidewalks, parapets and barriers. The bridge is supported on three concrete hammerhead piers and concrete gravity abutments. The hammerhead piers are founded on concrete drilled shafts, placed via tremie concrete methods. An additional aspect of the project is a 1,100 ft. elevated roadway on a Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) embankment, which is supported with the use of precast MSE wall panels. The MSE wall is capped with precast barrier pieces, which are integrally connected with a cast-in-place concrete moment slab. The Grasselli Bridge carries two lanes and a sidewalk over one road and one active Conrail spur line, serving as the main entrance and providing unimpeded access to the Linden Logistics Center.

The bridge is on a steep grade which presented challenges during structural deck concrete placement. The bridge deck was placed on stay-in-place forms over horizontally curved girders requiring specialized coordination for reinforcement installation and placement. Due to the continuity of the structure, the concrete bridge deck was poured in seven alternating sections over two separate days with approximately 385 CY and 268 CY poured each day. The staged pour sequence allowed the bridge structure to deflect, isolating negative tension zones over the piers, and reducing the potential for bridge deck cracking.

The New Grasselli Access Road received the Merit Award – Short Span Bridge, sponsored by the New Jersey Concrete and Aggregate Association and The New Jersey Chapter of the American Concrete Institute and recognized at the 57th Annual New Jersey Concrete Awards Event.