By: Joseph Strafaci, PhD, PE – jstrafaci@hntb.com; Greg Romano, PE – gromano@hntb.com and Xin Li, PE – xli@hntb.com; HNTB Corporation
This seminar describes an innovative Rocker Bent Repair Solution, that overcame logistical challenges encountered in the rehabilitation of the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s (NJDOT) Pulaski Skyway. The three and a half mile long Pulaski Skyway is a series of high-level long span trusses that cross over the Hackensack River and Passaic River, the New Jersey Turnpike, Conrail tracks and PATH tracks in 1939, it is considered the Nation’s first superhighway. HNTB engineers developed an original, innovative design, in 1939. HNTB engineers developed an original, innovative design, that abandons the rocker bent pins entirely and replaces them with a new high-load multi-rotational (HLMR) bearing. This design was developed to be performed entirely within the truss envelope, thereby eliminating the need for placing heavy shoring towers below the rocker bent locations, which would disrupt regional mobility.