PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
Forefront Deep Foundations
Manor
Street
Bridge
By Lisa Kopochinski
Work on the Manor Street Bridge project – which
crosses over the river in Bakersfield, Calif. – is
well underway. This follows a delay of nearly 18
months due to the flow of water in the Kern River, an area of the
southern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
With a completion date slated for this spring, this impressive
project for the City of Bakersfield involves a seismic retrofit
and repairs due to river debris damaging the superstructure of
the bridge.
“This includes constructing new footings under the existing
bridge footings installed on driven piling,” said Jeff Bird, CEO and
president at Forefront Deep Foundations, a PDCA member company
based in Newport Beach, Calif., that specializes in driven piling,
shoring and other deep foundation systems.
“We began work on the project this past October. The bridge
is 616 linear feet long and consists of two separate adjacent structures
– one for each direction of traffic. The Manor Street Bridge
was originally constructed in 1957 and has a daily traffic count of
over 10,750 vehicles.”
The cost of this project is approximately $9.3 million. However,
the original contract – awarded to general contractor Security
Paving in December 2018 – is expected to increase because of the
delay in the project start date.
Forefront’s role involves furnishing and installing 232 each HP
14 × 117 beams in 56-foot to 58-foot lengths in and around the 13
existing pier footings and two existing abutments.
Splicing piles in a low headroom condition
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