Men and Bridges

Men and Bridges
by Henry W. Hessing

We’re blessed with the most beautiful beaches in the world. Today, you can drive to them by taking Wantagh or Meadowbrook Parkway to Jones Beach, Loop Parkway to Point Lookout or Robert Moses Causeway to Captree, Oak and Fire Islands. There are fifteen bridges along these routes. The men who rehabilitate them are some of the finest you’ll ever encounter.

Men who work on bridges over water are very observant. As an example, there was one morning on a clear August day when the men working on top of the Captree Bridge observed a large moving ripple on the water surface. Terns and gulls were diving for baitfish. Blue fish were chasing the baitfish to the surface.

Other days you may get a good laugh from the obvious. One such occurrence was when a speedboat went through one of the Captree Bridge spans. Three young girls were topless and elicited hoots and howls again, first from the guys working up top, and then the rest on the barges and floats. The girls must have liked the attention as they passed by three times!

One of my all time favorite people is Scotty, a dock builder foreman. Scotty was from Scotland. He worked for a contractor responsible for doing concrete pile repair and steel jacket replacement on the Captree Bridge piers. A number of different trades and skills are required but most important is the man who is in responsible charge of doing the work. Scotty had a lifetime of experience.

Weather never seemed to faze Scotty. One brutally windy, rainy, cold, bone-chilling day saw white caps on the Great South Bay. Scotty described the weather conditions as, “just a summer day in Scotland, laddie!”

The repair work on the Captree Bridge required removing deteriorated concrete from each pile of several piers. In some cases reinforcement was exposed and had to be replaced or splices added before rectangular fiberglass stay-in-place forms were installed. The forms have to be set in place and stiffened, usually with timber struts, so they don’t move. This gives the repaired pile a neat and finished appearance as well as ensuring uniform and continuous concrete adherence between old and new concrete and to the reinforcement.

Construction materials such as concrete, aggregate, and rebar are stored on a huge flat rectangular barge, approximately forty feet wide by sixty feet long. The divers and tenders equipment are stored in a shanty on board as well. The barge is brought to the bridge by a tug. After a series of piers have been completed, the tug comes back to move the barge. Scotty decided to try something different. He figured the tides and currents around slack tide. He ordered the rope ties released from one end of the barge just before slack tide. The barge drifted a bit. As the tide ran, he ordered certain ropes tightened. The barge made a full 180-degree turn and came in place so the next few piers could be repaired. This was an elegant, inexpensive solution for moving a barge.

The sky was blue and the water an even darker blue on another bright sunny day when a compressor operator fell over board. Since there was no bluefish chasing bait fish or topless girls motoring by, there was no known distraction. Most thought the operator went for a swim with his clothes on just to cool off. None believed he was drowning. But Scotty thought differently and quickly removed his boots, took out his wallet, and dove into the water. Scotty pulled the operator back to the barge. One would think that everyone who works over water would know how to swim but this man didn’t. Later, the operator admitted he never learned how to swim. Scotty said he enjoyed the swim and everyone went back to work.

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Loop, Meadowbrook, Wantagh and Robert Moses Parkways all have one moveable, or “draw” bridge. The ones used on these routes are called bascule bridges. Some have two leaves and some have four depending on the number of lanes of traffic the bridge carries.

Men who do steel repairs are called ironworkers. Joe is an ironworker foreman who looks like he had been chiseled out of a chunk of granite. Sometimes Joe would fish off one of the bridges early in the morning well before daylight and the beginning of the workday. I don’t know that he ever caught any fish but I believe he liked the quiet just before dawn. It gave him time to think. Like most people in heavy construction, Joe was a man of very few words. He planned his day and the work got done. Nothing deterred him.

It is one thing to indicate on a set of design drawings, removal and replacement of structural steel and another thing is to do it on a bridge over water. One repair was taking a lot of time. It required replacing individual lacing bars (latticework) in one of the beams that is embedded in the concrete counter weight of the bascule leaf. Joe summoned John, the structural steel detailer, to the job site. Joe asked John to detail a complete replacement, and have it manufactured in the shop, brought out to the site so the whole assembly could be installed at one time. When it was all said and done, Joe’s thinking saved a lot of time.

Critical to the safety of the entire project is keeping the span balanced. The weight and location of all members removed and added to the bascule span are recorded in specific detail. This should be performed each day. In doing so, the span is kept in balance throughout the entire project to the extent that a range of 1,000 to 10,000 lbs. weights are kept at each corner at all times. Balancing a moveable bridge becomes a daily occurrence. If a leaf of a bascule span doesn’t come down, there is concern.

Joe worked on bridges long before balancing was done with gauges. Because he planned his work, he always anticipated what ever might happen well ahead of time. One of the ironworkers was a fellow who weighed about three hundred pounds. His name was Tiny. To balance one of the leaves of the bascule, Joe motioned to Tiny to walk out toward the end of the span. Tiny started plodding his way with hammer and spud wrench dangling. Seeing Tiny waddle is a wonder to behold. Joe called out to Tiny, “Go out a little further.” Tiny eventually made it to the end, and the leaf slowly descended. Once in place, the bridge tender (who operates the controls) threw the pins to lock the span in place. Joe told the men to remove one thousand pounds of lead weight from the counter balance. He didn’t need any strain gauges. All he needed was Tiny.


*****

In navigable waterways, timber fenders, wales and dolphins are used to protect bridge abutments and piers from misdirected boats, floating debris and/or ice. Over time, they need to be replaced. This work is usually coordinated with the tides so that there is access to do the repair or replacement. One man who does this work is a fellow named Tony. Most refer to him as “Captain Tony.”

Tony owns all the equipment, boats, barges, compressors and tools necessary to do any kind of marine work. He learned his craft from his father. Captain Tony didn’t rely on charts because he “knew” the water. He didn’t rely on equipment to do the work as much as he did on manpower. He had a crew that knew their jobs and worked smart. Tony had his own way of doing things based on his many years of experience and what he had learned from his dad. When he got to working on fenders or dolphins, he really did nice work. But every once in a while, Tony would get diverted.

Tony had an old, bare bones, heavily plated steel tugboat. The keel was large so it drew a lot of water. When the winter months came on, he decided to insulate the barge. But he didn’t just insulate it. He installed tongue-and-groove clear oak over the insulation and attached it to the steel walls. He took special care around the portals. His tug started to take on the look of a fine colonial styled house. The more he worked at it, the better it looked and the more he fell in love with installing, mitering, sanding, finishing and varnishing clear oak. He wire wooled and varnished it until he could see his face in the light’s reflection so he could shave.

All of this was a great and necessary diversion because sometimes, Captain Tony would loose track of the tides. Since you have to work with the tides in daylight hours, some days were short and others were long. On a given day when Tony decided that he had accomplished enough work, he’d head back to the marina with the tug, and his barge and whatever else he had taken out. Most of the men would head to any other piece of equipment or boat. They didn’t want to stay on the tug because every once in a while, Tony would run aground. That is why they called him “Captain Tony.” There is no way you can get this tug off a sand bar so you would have to wait for high tide. Tony didn’t care. He loved his boat and he loved installing oak, and if he had some time, he’d scarf timber and install new wales on your bridge.

There are sunny days when the sky is blue and the water an even darker blue. Those are the days you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but with some of the best people you’ll ever meet, the men who work on bridges over water.