Water Authority Pipe Support Bridges

Technical Description:

• Width: 22, 22, 19, 12 & 33 ft
• Span: 90 ft
• Style: Connector^®
• Finish: Weathering Steel
• Decking: Concrete

The San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project will supply the majority of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Area’s drinking water by transporting “raw” water from the Rio Grande River to a new water treatment plant. The Water Authority realized a need for bridges to support the pipelines and turned to Boyle Engineering.

“Since these pipelines are the primary water source in the future, they are designed for full seismic loading including vertical and horizontal accelerations,” said Robert Hawthorne, Project Engineer for Boyle Engineering.

Boyle’s plans called for five Continental^® Connector^® style bridges. These structures are among the largest pipe support structures Contech has installed to date. The chords are HSS 20” x 12” x1/2” and made of A500 Grade C tubular steel, while the balance of the structure is weathering steel. Each of the structures supports a 72” diameter pipe and one supports an additional 66” diameter pipe.

“Everything had to be just right. We erected them from one side of the channel and had to get three to four cranes out there because of the bearing loads we were dealing with,” said Joe Sanchez Project Manager for AUI, Inc. “The bridge project was challenging and enjoyable. Overall it went very well and the support we had from Contech was very good.”

Technical Description:

• Width: 22, 22, 19, 12 & 33 ft
• Span: 90 ft
• Style: Connector^®
• Finish: Weathering Steel
• Decking: Concrete