Workers have finished placing the new deck panels on Maryland’s eastbound William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge over the Chesapeake Bay, all while minimizing traffic impacts and increasing safety through a night-shift schedule without 24/7 closures.
The 71-year-old bridge, which moves eastbound traffic from Sandy Point State Park to Kent Island, stretches 4.35 miles parallel to its westbound twin structure.
The $140 million deck replacement project was designed by the Maryland Transportation Authority to minimize traffic disruptions in the eastbound lanes, as well as keep workers and drivers safer. With the span closed, workers removed and replaced at least one deck section per night shift, using marine-based equipment, with precast deck sections that were barged in. The westbound bridge, meanwhile, was converted to two-way traffic in the evenings, and the eastbound bridge would reopen every morning once work was completed. Daytime crews prepped the precast sections for installation during off-peak hours.
This scheduling system has proven effective in the past, having been used in 2007 on the westbound bridge’s suspension span re-decking.
In addition to replacing the bridge deck floor system, upgrades coming to the eastbound bridge include barrier upgrades, major structural rehabilitation of the truss superstructure, lane use signal gantry replacements and utility relocations and off-site stormwater management work.
The eastbound bridge’s last deck replacements took place in the 1970s and 1980s, and 2015 deck condition studies put the bridge’s remaining service life at 10 to 15 years. MDTA says the eastbound deck replacement is only the first phase of a series of planned projects coming to the eastbound Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
The eastbound bridge construction contract was awarded by MDTA in October 2022 to Kokosing McLean, a joint venture made up of local firms Corman Kokosing and McLean Contracting.
