spanning the gap

A major supplier on the Marquette Interchange project is Span Crete, Inc, which supplies pre-cast bridge girders for the project. When complete, the company will have provided close to 1,000 steel and concrete girders which are fabricated in Green Bay, WI.

Varying in length from 60 to 146 feet, the girders weigh about 1,000 pounds a foot. The girders measure between 54 and 72 inches high with the top flange about four feet wide and the bottom flange about 26 inches wide.

Among the biggest challenges for Span Crete has been hauling the girders to the jobsite, says John Schnell, general manager of Span Crete.

“Generally speaking, we haul them ourselves,” he says. “But there have been several times they requested more than we could deliver so we had to get a broker involved.”

Most of the time, the girders are hauled on a 48 foot lowboy with a bunk on it and behind that a four axle steerable unit. “That has proven to be an efficient method for hauling the girders,” he says.

Span Crete has never completed a project as large as this one for the Marquette Interchange, Schnell says.