The Veterans’ Glass City Skyway has been in use for less than 13 years, but already the chloride chemicals used to melt snow and ice in the winter have taken their toll on its deck.
High levels of chlorides in concrete just below the surface are the main reason the landmark bridge, opened to traffic in the spring of 2007, will undergo its first major repair project starting later this month, said David Geckle, the Ohio Department of Transportation’s district bridge engineer in Bowling Green.
“It’s not that the deck surface itself is deteriorating — it’s the chloride penetration in the concrete” that is spurring the project to grind off the top 1¾ inches and replace it, Mr. Geckle said.
Chloride ions don’t harm concrete itself, but over time they attack reinforcing steel in the concrete, causing corrosion.
Starting the week of March 16, traffic across the I-280 bridge over the Maumee River will be reduced to two lanes each way for the majority of two construction seasons.
The inner half of each side of the structure will be resurfaced this year, with the outer half to be done next year, Mr. Geckle said.
Next year’s work also will include work on ramps at the Greenbelt Parkway and Front Street interchanges that branch off from the Skyway, closing them for periods of 30 to 75 days each. The work on the bridge’s outer lanes will include replacing the metal railings atop its side walls.
To prepare for detours associated with the ramp work, ramps at Greenbelt and at the Starr Avenue and Manhattan Boulevard interchanges will be closed for up to a week this season for concrete-joint repairs, said Madison Krell, ODOT’s project engineer.
Setting up this year’s work zone will require 30-minute ramp closings near the bridge on the nights of March 16 and 17, Ms. Krell said.
Kokosing Construction Co. holds an $18,073,893.10 state contract for the work.
Two shifts are expected to work on the bridge, said Mark Mondora, ODOT’s area engineer: one on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., the other on Sunday through Thursday nights from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The night shift will be allowed to close a second lane on I-280 in either direction, Mr. Mondora said, but so far ODOT is unaware of any plans by Kokosing to do so.
When the Skyway opened, officials predicted it would be at least 20 years before any major repairs would be needed. But concrete sampling conducted thereafter showed the chloride intrusion from salt and, in the bridge’s early years, calcium chloride used for ice control.
A sealant was applied to the deck several years ago, “but we didn’t do it soon enough,” Mr. Geckle said, adding that a similar bridge across the Ohio River required comparable deck work even sooner.
The replacement surface will be less permeable and a sealant will be applied to it, the bridge engineer said.
“Typically when we do an overlay, we expect to get 20, 25 years out of it,” he said, although resealing or other treatment might be needed along the way.
First Published March 5, 2020, 11:23 a.m.
