The month of March and early April brought big milestones including project completion. The north Bay Bridge was fully opened to traffic on March 28 and the south Bay Bridge followed on April 7. The installation of the pedestrian rail was completed on the Bay Bridge and the pedestrian path was opened on Thursday April 03. Installation of the roadway light poles was completed and the roadway lighting system and accent lighting system were placed in service on Wednesday, March 12. All remaining roadway work was completed, which included asphalt paving, striping, signs, seeding and landscaping. The final project inspection was completed during the week of April 7th, 2008.

On February 12th the South Bridge was opened to one lane of traffic which marked the beginning of the last phase of the project and allowed crews to begin construction of the medians at the ends of the project. Work in the medians consisted of milling asphalt, curb & gutter, storm sewer inlets, barrier, and roadway light foundations. Work completed during the month included substructure painting on the Bay Bridge and reconstruction of Porter Ave. Pedestrian rail installation continued, which is over 30% complete, and light pole installation continued, as well, with only fourteen poles remaining to be set. The aesthetic walls at the east abutment were nearly completed and the slopes at the CSX overpass were seeded. Landscaping work began on the west approach.

During the month the last few spans of deck forms were removed from the south Bay Bridge and the mechanical deck grooving, superstructure painting, and backfill of the access channel in the bay were completed. Painting of the substructure continued during the month and only eight piers are left to complete. Installation of the accent and necklace lights was completed and all but two light poles were installed on the Bay Bridge. At the end of the month, installation of the pedestrian rail began near the west approach. The south CSX RR Bridge was completed with the exception of painting two spans of the structural steel girders. Roadway work included placing the pedestrian path adjacent to Porter Ave., median barrier installation, light pole foundation installation, construction of aesthetic walls, and asphalt paving. Currently the project is on schedule to switch traffic to the south bridge in mid February.

The month of December was a good month for the deck and barrier crews. The last deck pour on the South Bridge was made December 8th which completed the placement of over 31,000 cubic yards of deck concrete. This came just 10 months after the first deck pour on the North Bridge in February. Both the 42” barrier and the 32” barrier on the South Bridge were also completed. The last substantial concrete placement on the Bay Bridge was made on December 21. Work continued on the South Bridge accent light installation, mechanical grooving, and removal of deck formwork. Paint operations continued on the bridge with the substructure over 60% complete and the superstructure over 50% complete. Backfilling of the construction channel began on both the east and west ends of the bridge. Work on the CSX Railroad Bridge continued with the placement of the south deck and approach slabs. Roadway work included curb & gutter placement and placement of the first course of asphalt on the south approaches to the CSX Bridge.

During November another milestone was reached on the 21st of the month when the last girder was set in place at span 50 of the South Bridge. This comes a little over 11 months after the first girder was set on the Westbound Bridge in December of 2006. A total of 781 pre-stressed concrete bulb tee girders have been utilized in the project. With the final girders set in place, crews were able to complete all remaining deck formwork and rebar installation and at the end of November over 95% of the deck had been placed with only two concrete placements remaining. Work continues on the South Bridge barrier rail, accent light installation, mechanical grooving, and removal of deck formwork. Paint operations have begun on the bridge substructure with over 50% of the bridge completed. Work on the CSX Railroad Bridge continued with deck formwork and rebar installation in preparation for concrete placement. The south retaining walls were completed along with subgrade preparation and crushed stone base installation on the approaches to the CSX Bridge.

At the end of October 2007, the North Bridge was ready to be opened to the public and on November 1, 2007, after a day of ceremonies and celebrations, one lane in each direction was opened at approximately 7:30 pm. This marked the completion of the first contractual milestone and the beginning of a new phase of construction: Final completion. Work completed on the North Bridge included; accent lighting, temporary striping, signs, superstructure painting, removal of deck formwork, and reconstruction of service roads at both the Bay Bridge and the CSX overpass. Construction of the South Bridge has been on going since late March and at the end of October nearly 70% of the deck has been placed. This includes sixteen spans that were placed during the month, including the three main spans. Erection of structural steel was completed on the South CSX Bridge along with installation of the southeast retaining wall.

A major milestone was achieved on the project September 25th when the last substructure concrete was placed on the Bay Bridge, just one year and twelve days after installation of the first permanent pile! Deck grooving and barrier rail construction were completed on the north bridge and work continued on installation of accent light conduit, painting the barriers and girders, and stripping deck formwork. Construction of the south bridge continued as scheduled; the haunch girders were erected at Piers 52 and 53 on the main span and end girders were set in Span 51. Over 70 % of the girders have been erected on the south bridge and 43% of the deck is in place. At the CSX Bridge the south surcharge fills and wire walls at each abutment were completed and substructure work continued.

In August deck pours continued on the South Bridge and already 20% of the bridge deck has been placed. The last footing pour was completed and now only 24 substructure pours remain. Girders continue to fly up on the South Bridge and now cover over 35% of the bridge. The falsework was completed at Pier 52 on the south bridge and stands ready for haunch girder erection. On the North Bridge the standard 32” barrier was completed and only 800’ of the 42” Texas Barrier remains to be cast. The last deck pour on the North Bridge was completed. Half of the North Bridge has been grooved and painting on the barriers and girders has started. Traffic was switched onto the new CSX Railroad Bridge and demolition commenced on the old CSX South Bridge. Asphalt paving was completed on the approaches in both Ocean Springs and Biloxi. The approaches only lack a final lift of asphalt to be ready for final stripping.

The Main Span superstructure of the North Bridge (spans 51-53) was completed this month, which included the deck placement and 2nd stage post-tensioning of the haunch girders. Once this work was complete, the last girders on the North Bridge were installed in the spans adjacent to the Main Span. At the end of the month, there were only five more spans of deck to place and barrier rail was 60% complete on the North Bridge. Pile installation was completed for both of the Bay Bridges with only six more footings remaining to be placed on the South Bridge. Superstructure construction on the Biloxi side of the South Bridge is in full swing now with the first deck placement made on July 26th in spans 1-3. Construction progressed on the North CSX Railroad Bridge and traffic is expected to be switched onto the newly completed bridge by early August so that construction of the South Bridge may begin.

Much Progress was made in June, on the North Bridge only seven spans are still without girders. Concrete deck has been placed on over a mile of bridge, including the first main span deck pour. On the South Bridge there are only 13 piers of pile left to drive. Footings have been placed on forty of seventy piers. The last substructure pour on the North Bridge was placed on June 12th, and since then the column and cap crews have made rapid advances on the South Bridge. Columns are placed on thirty piers, and caps on top of seventeen of those columns. June was also the first month decking crews started on the south bridge. The first lift of asphalt was placed over the west approach connecting the North and South bridges to US 90 in Biloxi. The first CSX Railroad Bridge deck pour was placed near the end of June. The approach to the CSX Bridge is starting to show progress with asphalt, retaining wall coping and barrier rail being placed for the first time in Ocean Springs.

The last column was placed and only eight cap pours remain on the north bridge. Girders are now in place on more then two thirds of the north bridge and bridge deck has been placed on almost 4000 feet. Post tensioning was completed and decking started on the main spans. Texas barrier rail is keeping up with the deck pours and is placed to span 15 on the Biloxi side. On the south bridge foundations are complete to pier 20 on the Biloxi side and pier 59 on the Ocean Spring side. Columns are complete to piers 20 and 67. A total of 9 caps have been placed on the south bridge. All of the steel girders are now set on the bridge over the CSX Railroad in Ocean Springs and post tensioning of the straddle bent is complete. Roadwork on the Biloxi and Ocean Spring’s sides are progressing and now both sides have cast approach slabs and barrier foundations. In Ocean Spring north MSE Panel installation was completed and grading work has started.

Progress on the north bridge during the month was significant and with the placement of barrier rail in Spans 4-10 the bridge is beginning to look like a bridge. The second set of haunch girders were erected at Pier 53 of the main span bridge and both flanking spans were installed. Girders are now in place on more than one third of the north bridge, and over 1,500 feet of bridge deck has been poured. Installation of piling and waterline footings is progressing on the south bridge and is now 25% complete with construction of the columns and caps closely following the footings. The three spans of girders on the Biloxi approach were set this month. At the CSX bridge girders were erected on both sides of the track and shoring near the track was installed. Demolition of the old Bay Bridge reached a milestone as the bascule (French word for teeter-totter) span girders and decking was removed. All of the old bridge except for the four main piers have been removed and transported to Deer Island where a barrier reef is being created.

The first five haunch girders were hoisted into position on top of pier 52 of the north bridge. The haunch girders, which weigh over 100 tons each, support the bridge’s longest span of 250 feet spanning the Navigation Channel. Deck was placed to span 13 on the west side and a second crew began decking operations from the east side of the Bay. Substructure work, for both the north and south bridge, was completed on the three approach spans on each side of the bridge. Substructure work also continued on the north bridge low and high levels, which has only three footings remaining to be placed. Piling operations are in full swing on the south bridge now with footing crews behind them. At the CSX Railroad Bridge, structural steel was erected on 4 of 6 spans of the north bridge and casting of retaining wall panels began. Removal of the existing low level structure was completed and removal of the high level progressed to within a few spans on each side of the bascule span.

The first deck pour was made this month at Spans 4 & 5 of the north bridge. Spans 6 & 7 of the north bridge were also placed during the month for a total of four, 85’-9” spans placed. The 24” piling operation (low level piers) was completed on the north bridge at mid month and started driving pile on the south bridge, completing three piers. There are only two more piers with 30” pile (high level and main span) remaining to be driven on the north bridge. Substructure concrete is well over 50% complete on the north bridge. Installation of 72” pre-cast concrete girders began at the end of the month at span 12 of the north bridge along with installation of falsework used to support the main span haunch girders during construction. At the east approach, end bent 72 was completed and on the west approach, the concrete pile seawall was completed. At the CSX bridge the substructure of the north bridge was completed and the first loads of miscellaneous structural steel were delivered at the end of the month.

On the Biloxi side of the bay, construction of the west low level bridge deck began this month as formwork and reinforcing was installed in Spans 4 through 10 of the north bridge. Installation of the concrete sea wall near Abutment 1 began during the month and work on the abutment retaining walls continued. On the Ocean Springs side of the bay, pile installation was completed for the north low and high level approaches to the main span bridge and substructure work on these piers began. Installation of concrete pile for the north bridge is approaching 85% complete and 28 of the 70 piers have been constructed. At the CSX bridge the piling for the east abutment of the north bridge were installed following removal of the embankment surcharge and two piers were completed. Utility relocation near the CSX bridge continued during the month.