Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project Receives Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Award
LANCASTER, Pa. (PRWEB) May 10, 2018 -- The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) recently announced the winners of their 2018 Design Awards. The program, in its 55th year, recognized 21 projects with awards of excellence in design. Over 100 project entries from across the U.S. were submitted for award consideration.
The Aerial Guideway project for the Dulles Corridor Metrorail received the 2018 PCI Design Award for Transportation: Best Non-Highway Bridge. Coastal Precast Systems of Chesapeake, VA, a PCI Mid-Atlantic member, was the precast concrete producer for the project.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The project owner is the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). When completed, the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Phase 2 will (to the east) connect Washington Dulles International Airport to Washington, D.C. and Loudoun County, VA (to the west) with numerous stops along the way. The project includes a station at Dulles, and an aerial guideway that will carry passengers above the busy airport.
The aerial guideway required a thoughtful design strategy, says Gregory Shafer, bridge technical manager for Parsons, in Baltimore, MD.
In addition to filling a gap in the transportation network, the guideway needed to complement the landscape of a historically significant transportation hub. It also had to be delivered at a reasonable price.
“It is a huge design-build project with a $1.2 billion bid value, where the low bids were separated by just 1.2%, making it very cost-competitive,” Parsons says.
Several structure types, including steel box girders, were considered for the aerial guideway structure. Precast concrete girders, supplied by Coastal Precast Systems, were selected for several reasons.
Precast concrete offered a high-durability and low-maintenance solution, which was critical to meeting the 100-year service life requirements.
The use of precast concrete also minimized impacts on nearby roads and wetlands and delivered a high-quality product at a lower cost relative to the alternatives.
“The fully-prestressed, factory-produced precast concrete elements met serviceability requirements and fit well within the historic airport architecture,” says Parsons.
The ability to quickly mobilize and erect the precast concrete girders was another advantage of precast concrete, as it minimized impacts on airport traffic and operations.
PRECAST SOLUTION
Overall, the Dulles Rail Project expansion adds 11.4 route miles to the Metrorail system, including the 6 track miles of aerial guideway that passes through the airport, over wetlands to a maintenance yard, and connects to the western section of at-grade rail.
Elements of the bridge required tight 800-ft-radius curves, along with higher live loads and overall requirements for rider comfort.
The use of prestressed concrete girders in a chorded configuration worked well with the spans of up to 150 ft on the curved alignment. The girders incorporated draped prestressing strands with flared spacing at the ends. Florida wide-flange I-beams (or FIB) sections with four different depths were used to minimize the structure depth and deliver an efficient structure.
“It was the first use of these FIB shape girders in the region,” Shafer says.
The flexibility of these precast concrete elements also accommodated various challenging elements, including track cross-overs and turnouts, as well as features for power and control systems.
The ability to adjust the girder depth also allowed the designers to “tune” the structure to meet the vibration requirements for rider comfort. To further minimize costs and expedite construction, the design used a pair of precast, prestressed concrete girders to support each track. The design of the girders considered redundancy, strength, and serviceability.
Additional details and photos for this award-winning project are available on the PCI website.
PROJECT AT-A-GLANCE
Owner: Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority - MWAA (Washington, D.C.)
Precast Concrete Producer: Coastal Precast Systems (Chesapeake, VA)
Engineer of Record: Parsons (Baltimore, MD)
General Contractor: Capital Rail Constructors, a Joint Venture of Clark Construction Group, LLC and Kiewitt Infrastructure South Co. (Herndon, VA)
Project cost: $1.18 billion
Bridge size: 37,831 ft.
ABOUT PCI MID-ATLANTIC
PCI Mid-Atlantic, a chapter of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI), is a professional marketing organization committed to the growth and greater profitability of the Precast Industry in the Mid-Atlantic region. It is comprised of prestressed/precast producer member firms located throughout the Mid-Atlantic States, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. PCI Mid-Atlantic also has over 50 associate member companies that produce a variety of concrete industry related products. For more information, visit http://www.pci-ma.org.
Kae G. Wagner, North Star Marketing, http://www.pci-ma.org, +1 717-392-6982 Ext: 1, [email protected]
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