A Great Formwork Partner | Why Trust Anyone else?

Joliet, Illinois

 

Key Travel and Freight Corridor for North America

At just under a half mile, a new bridge over the Des Plaines River in Joliet, Illinois, will connect Interstate 80 to the CenterPoint Intermodal Center (CIC) and its Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Intermodal Facilities. CIC is the largest master-planned inland port in North America.

Procurement Partner – Why Trust Anyone Else?

The joint venture of Kenny-Kraemer NA was the engineering procurement and construction contractor chosen through a best-value procurement process. It is essential to minimize costs in your procurement process. Still, it is also vital to identify suppliers who can provide the quality of goods and services that your company needs and who have a record of delivering reliably. Kenny-Kraemer NA chose EFCO. Why trust anyone else?

Multi-Stem Pier Cap Construction

The bridge has seven multi-stem piers, the tallest of which reaches 62′ above the footing. Kenny-Kraemer designed soffit support around the columns with EFCO equipment that they owned and chose EFCO as their formwork partner for the additional equipment needed for the project. EFCO, selected as the formwork partner for this project, supplied both EFCO Round Column® pier stem forms and PLATE GIRDER® pier cap forms. The Kenny-Kraemer NA crew is experienced at using EFCO equipment and asked for a solution to enable them to set and strip the pier cap in a single pick.

Setting and Stripping Formwork Monolithically

The 86′ long x 9′ wide x 12′ tall pier cap relied on the capacity of SUPER PLATE GIRDER® formwork for the soffits to support the placement of approximately 1.4 million pounds (635,029 kg) of concrete and rebar. EFCO also provided pier stem formwork that allowed them to pour the 7′ and 8′ diameter piers up to 62′ monolithically.

Cost and Time savings achieved using SUPER PLATE GIRDER

This project realized substantial cost and time savings by constructing the pier caps monolithically. EFCO’s SUPER PLATE GIRDER® formwork was ideal for this situation as it provides the necessary capacity to cycle a colossal-sized pier cap in a single pick. Two hundred tons of aggregate were brought in to create a causeway that enabled access to the piers located between the riverbanks. This step allowed the 100,000 lb pier cap to be set, stripped, and cycled in one piece.

Bridge Building Experts

This project represented a true partnership, with a great deal of bridge-building expertise at EFCO and Kenny-Kraemer. One example of the teams working together was developing a custom-made lifting eye to cycle the pier cap without needing a separate picking beam.

Best Formwork Supplier for Heavy-Duty Solution

Kenny-Kraemer NA installed eight radiused support brackets to hold the cap, and the rebar cage followed. The thermal curing plan for mass concrete controlled the schedule; therefore, being able to cycle the forms efficiently was a priority. After the pour, the soffit forms hinged open to allow the cap to be stripped vertically. EFCO is consistently chosen as the best formwork supplier when the project scope demands a heavy-duty solution. Why Choose Anyone Else!

EFCO EQUIPMENT

Round Column®
SUPER PLATE GIRDER®
PLATE GIRDER®

 

EFCO FORMWORK SPECIALISTS–CHICAGO

Joben Grimmius Territory Manager
Paul Huisinga Sr. Field Supervisor
Zach Scholten Engineer

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KENNY-KRAEMER TEAM, JV

Pat Shea Project Manager
Jack Canale Project Manager
Tom Ringelstetter Project Engineer
David Stanke Project Engineer
Dale Kehoe Superintendent

Project Photos