High Steel Structures, LLC, announced that it has completed its part of the steel fabrication for New York’s $3.98 billion Tappan Zee Bridge replacement (officially renamed the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge), the largest transportation infrastructure design-build project in the U.S. In a ceremony at High Steel’s Williamsport, Pa., facility, the company unveiled the last girder, freshly painted in the project’s trademark blue.
High Steel’s contract to produce more than 50,000 tons of structural steel for half the approach spans to the iconic three-mile-long, twin-span steel bridge is the largest in the company’s history. “With fabrication complete, we are proud to say that we have hit every engineering and delivery milestone with outstanding quality,” said Jeffrey L. Sterner, president and COO of High Industries, Inc.
To support the project, High Steel completed a $11.4 million, 30,000-sq.-ft expansion of its Williamsport facility, installed new state-of-the-art equipment to improve efficiency and added approximately 200 jobs. The expansion was supported by a $430,000 grant awarded by the Governor and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, and was contingent upon High Steel’s winning the contract to fabricate the bridge. High Steel also fabricated new bridge’s components at is Lancaster, Pa. facilities.
The bridge is being built by Tappan Zee Constructors, a design-build LLC composed of Fluor Corporation, American Bridge Company, Granite Construction Northeast and Traylor Bros. Three AISC/NSBA member fabricators—High Steel, along with Hirschfeld Industries and Canam-Bridges—have together provided more than 110,000 tons of structural steel while playing a key role in the support of more than 7,700 jobs. And just as the fabrication was provided domestically, so too was the steel production, with 160,000 tons of steel plate for both the superstructure and sheet pilings coming from AISC member ArcelorMittal. The design-build approach generated more than $1 billion in savings compared with the state and federal cost estimates.
The first span of the new bridge opened to westbound traffic in August, and the second span is on track to open next year. For more about the project, see our previous news post here.