FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 22, 2014
Contact: Darrel Berry, Marketing Communications Manager
Hanson Professional Services Inc.
(217) 747-9291
dberry@hanson-inc.com
Hanson Alaska receives award for Tanana River Bridge project
The Tanana River Bridge in Salcha, Alaska, is the state’s longest at 3,300 feet. The bridge is the first phase of the Alaska Railroad Corp.’s Northern Rail Extension.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Hanson Alaska LLC recently received a Col. Frederick Mears Award of Excellence from the Alaska Railroad Corp. (ARRC) for its work on the Tanana River Bridge in Salcha, Alaska.
ARRC presented Mears awards to Hanson Alaska and other firms on the project team Aug. 5 during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Tanana River Bridge’s opening. The award recognizes people and projects that move the Alaska Railroad forward and contribute to the greater good of Alaska and Railbelt communities. It is named for the former Alaska Engineering Commission chairman and chief engineer who oversaw Alaska Railroad construction from 1914 to 1923.
The bridge is the first phase of ARRC’s Northern Rail Extension, a project that will create an 80-mile railway between North Pole, Alaska, and Delta Junction, Alaska. Hanson Professional Services Inc. has been providing design engineering services since 2006 for the four-phase extension project, including hydraulic and structural engineering services and addressing geotechnical, hydraulic and seismic issues for the bridge. The extension will provide a safer, all-weather transportation option and give the military improved, year-round access to training facilities south of the Tanana River.
At 3,300 feet, the 20-span Tanana River Bridge is Alaska’s longest and is designed to serve vehicular and railroad traffic with a single bimodal deck. The bridge crosses the glacier-fed, braided Tanana River at a remote site in an area with active and potentially active seismic faults. The designers had to account for wind, water pressure, scouring, sheet ice, ice jams and severe flooding in an area with a broad flood plain. Temperatures in the area range from occasional highs near 90 degrees to lows near 70 below zero. In the three-year construction process, piles for the bridge were driven and concrete was placed at 20 below zero in the winter. Ice flows and damming during ice breakup in the spring required the construction causeway and temporary bridging to be removed and replaced. The bridge was completed for $187 million, $1 million under budget.
Fairbanks, Alaska-based television station K13XD has posted its coverage of the event, you can view it at http://youtu.be/DxUNVOAOkFo.
Hanson Alaska LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hanson Professional Services Inc., a national, employee-owned consulting firm providing engineering, planning and allied services. The Hanson Alaska LLC office is located at 801 B St., Suite 400, Anchorage, AK 99501. The office may be reached by phone: (907) 279-1282 or fax: (907) 276-1283.
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