The Manhattan Bridge, built in 1909, total length is 6,090 feet and supported by 4 main cables. This two-deck suspension bridge carries automobile, truck, subway, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic over the East River connecting Brooklyn with Manhattan. On an average weekday, the bridge accommodates 78,000 vehicles, 3,000 bicyclists and pedestrians and 320,000 transit riders. It supports seven lanes of vehicular traffic, four transit train lines, a pedestrian walkway, a bikeway and is also a major truck route. The Manhattan Bridge is the most heavily traveled of all the East River spans. In 1982 New York City Department of Transportation began a massive $834 million reconstruction program consisting of 14 contracts, of which Skanska Koch has performed several. This Skanska Koch project, contract #11, was torehabilitation of the lower roadway deck and structural support framing. This involved the demolition, removal and reinstallation of over 4 million kg of steel, and 3,300 square meters of new, poured-in-place concrete-filled steel grating. Because of the heavy volume of commuters that are dependent upon the Manhattan Bridge for access to and from Brooklyn, the contract included a milestone of one year to complete this major facet of the project. The client also added disincentive/incentive payments per calendar day. Koch Skanska has a history of completing these types of projects considerably ahead of schedule and this was no different.
