Innovative contractor and like-minded leading precast manufacturer collaborate

The contractor is Michael Bean of M.A. Bean Associates, LLC in Sanbornton, New Hampshire. Mr. Bean has been a customer of the equally innovative leading New England infrastructure precast products manufacturer Concrete Systems, Inc. in Hudson, New Hampshire for nearly 30 years.

Tilton Bridge Road

The "red listed" bridges throughout New England and in particular, New Hampshire and Vermont, were scheduled to receive repair/replacement funds, however, those funds would not be available for at least 7 years. The town of Sanbornton needed help now as the bridges in question were unsafe and long overdue for replacement.

As a well known resident of Sanbornton, Mr. Bean was approached for advice and help with 3 failing and red listed bridges. He was familiar with them and had already devised a plan in his mind as to how he would design and replace each bridge with a fast track schedule and a proposal that would be cost efficient and effective. In most cases, the existing abutments were fine, but all decking and railings were structurally deficient.

"I'm a real fan of CSI because their products are incomparable; their engineering staff is excellent; and their production people are the best, but most of all, the hands on attention I receive from the CSI team and CSI president Mike Worden make every project a complete success."

The basic plan was to use the existing abutments; remove the failed steel railing and deck support girders and replace the girders with a system of steel reinforced precast concrete deck planks.

Bridge guard rail is very expensive and is usually 10 weeks out from approved shop drawings to say nothing of installation time. So the decision was made to use a permanent anchor mounted Clampcrete roadway barrier system in lieu of the steel rail.

The Clampcrete® barrier can be mounted and permanently fastened to the precast deck planks in one day. This was an idea that Concrete Systems Inc. and Michael Bean developed. Clampcrete mounted barrier is TL-4 crash tested making it far safer than standard guard rail.

A shoe was installed with the Clampcrete system which allows the transition to standard beam guard rail off the corners of the bridge. The decking lift holes are grouted; Royston 104 membrane is placed over the entire deck; the road base is installed and the bridge can be opened to the public in usually 3 to 4 days. Michael Bean finds it challenging and rewarding to help these small towns replace the bridge beams for a fraction of what a complete replacement would cost.

For the past 30 years, M.A. Bean Associates has constructed numerous bridges and Rigid Bridge Systems as well as box culverts, for municipalities throughout New Hampshire and Vermont.