After an errant driver hit the old wooden railing and fell into the contaminated waters of the New River, the County shut down the roadway due to the extensive damage caused to one of the exterior piles/columns and called upon NV5 to assist with potential repairs.
NV5 staff inspected the damage and confirmed that the exterior pile needed to be repaired immediately. Several options were evaluated and proposed, requiring portions of the deck along with the cap beam to be removed for access. To that end, the County decided to remove the whole deck (AC, transverse decking, and longitudinal stringers and caps), given the substantial deterioration and rotting of the wood. To avoid having to remove the old and drive a new pile into the river, NV5 recommended encasing the pile and injecting it with high pressure grout.
During construction, two additional side by side abutment piles were found to be severely rotted from the inside. NV5 recommended excavating the piles (~10 feet) to cut out the rotted portion, place a casing embedded 5 to 10 feet below the cut, and fill them with 4,000psi concrete.