Designing this preservation was no small feat. The bridge extends 1.5 miles; serves a region with a historically short construction season; carries nearly 20,000 vehicles a day; and towers over a busy marine area.
Improvements for the two-year project included placing a concrete overlay on the bridge deck; replacing modular expansion joints and strip seal joints; re-tensioning suspender cables for the tied arch; painting the exterior of the tied arch, the interior of the tie girders, and the ends of the steel girders; constructing a new multilane modern roundabout; upgrading roadway and navigational lighting; and repairing sidewalk and railing.
Ayres Associates was uniquely familiar with the Bong Bridge, having designed much of the original structure. This rehabilitation was the first major upgrade to the durable bridge since its opening. The project opened to traffic in October 2015 – several months ahead of schedule and under the budget estimates from the Wisconsin and Minnesota Departments of Transportation, which shared the cost of the approximately $ 20 million project.
Dane Partners also honored
In related news, Dane Partners, a joint venture of Ayres Associates, EMCS, OTIE, and SEH, also earned a State Finalist Award in the ACEC Wisconsin Engineering Excellence Awards competition for the team’ s work on the STH 73 Jughandle Interchange. The project involved an innovative redesign of the existing at-grade intersection between STH 73 and US 12 / 18. The old design formed two offset intersections, which produced a high crash rate because of the unusual and dangerous intersection configuration. The short roadway segments between the two intersections created significant safety concerns as high volumes of vehicles had to traverse, slow down, and turn along an equally high-volume, highspeed route. The new design – shaped like a jug handle – minimizes crashes and better facilitates traffic flow between the two major highways. The jug handle involves a gradeseparated interchange that separates the two high-volume roadways, which minimizes the conflict points between vehicles and provides a much safer interchange.
Volunteer efforts recognized
Tom Pulse, president of Ayres Associates, recently received the American Council of Engineering Companies of Wisconsin’ s 2017 Chairman’ s Award for his personal service to or on behalf of ACEC WI. Pulse received the award for his sustained service in the interest of advancing consulting engineering and member firms.
Pulse’ s leadership has been a driving force in ACEC of Wisconsin for years, including his service on the ACEC-Wisconsin Board of Directors from 2004 to 2011. During that time he served as Professional Engineers in Private Practice director, secretarytreasurer, and chairman-elect until serving as Board of Directors chairman in 2009-10, and past chairman in 2010- 11. Pulse also served as Leadership Institute class advisor for the classes of 2015 and 2016.
Pulse has been recognized nationally for his outstanding work in the engineering field through his induction into the ACEC College of Fellows in 2015. The honor recognizes individuals for their dedication, commitment, and innovation throughout their engineering careers.
' Distinguished service ' noted John Davis, manager of traffic engineering services, recently received the Distinguished Service Award from the Wisconsin Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers( ITE).
Davis, based in Ayres’ Waukesha, Wisconsin, office, has 34 years of traffic engineering experience in the public and private sectors, including the past nine years at Ayres Associates. Davis has been extremely active in ITE for much of his career, first becoming a member in 1981. His leadership roles began with being editor of the Hoosier ITE Journal for the Indiana Section in 1989. In the Wisconsin ITE Section he is currently serving as coleader of the Midwestern District ITE 2017 Conference that will be held in June in Madison. He is also very active in getting students involved in the ITE community. He has been an ITE fellow since 1998 and currently serves as chairman of International ITE’ s Traffic Engineering Council.
His project experience includes traffic control design and operations, geometric design, traffic impact studies, traffic control evaluations, traffic incident management, and freeway operations.
Engineer earns YP award
Erik Lietz, a civil engineer and solid waste expert in Ayres’ Eau Claire, Wisconsin, office, was recently presented the Young Professional Award for Outstanding Service and Professionalism. The Wisconsin Badger Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America( SWANA) presented Lietz the award at the 2017 Wisconsin Integrated Resource Management Conference.
The honor recognized the work Lietz has done to increase safety awareness and performance in the industry. Lietz, who is vice president and a board director for the Wisconsin chapter, is also the chapter’ s safety ambassador to the national SWANA board.
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