The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Bayonne Bridge Navigational Clearance Program

Challenge

When the Bayonne Bridge, which connects Bayonne, New Jersey, and
Staten Island, New York, needed to be raised to accommodate larger,
Panamax container ships, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
implemented a novel solution. To meet the increased height of the ships,
they decided to raise the roadway 64 feet within the existing arch span
and build new approaches, while maintaining navigational and vehicular
traffic. The steel main span was reframed and strengthened so the new
roadway could be built above the existing roadway until it could be
demolished. In order to construct the approaches, 796 pieces of precast
concrete had to be fabricated, delivered, and installed. This type of
complex project, raising the height of the roadbed without removing the
steel arch truss and keeping water and highway traffic flowing, was a first
of its kind.

Solution

MBP provided scheduling, project controls, cost estimating, and dispute
resolution services for this project which utilized innovative techniques
and required staged construction to keep traffic flowing in both directions
with minimal disruption.

MBP was able to use data from the critical path method (CPM) schedule,
fabrication shop productivity reports, and live field-installation data in
order to report on the project status. MBP joined this data into reports
that helped to predict the project completion dates as well as interim
milestones. The data observed in the field and identified potential bottle
necks and calculated completion dates based on the predicted scenarios.

The team worked with the Port Authority and the contractor to actively
mitigate delays found by reviewing the monthly CPM schedule. The
over 8,000-activity schedule was constantly analyzed for actualized
data and predictive logic accuracy to help ensure the legitimacy of
upcoming events and forecasted completion dates. During reoccurring
meetings, the project team would continually identify high-risk tasks,
calculate their potential impacts, and develop a solution that could be
implemented to mitigate any impacts.

MBP also assisted the Port Authority in helping to resolve a dispute over
approximately $400 million and almost two years of delay. Due to major
necessary design changes, the contractor’s time frame to complete
the project was severely impacted. Early in the construction phase,
constructibility issues were identified on both the new approaches and
the mainspan requiring alternate designs and construction methods.
MBP analyzed the design changes and assisted in ensuring the schedule
changes and impacts were correct. In addition, MBP was able to review
the CPM schedule and costs associated with the changes to help
negotiate an adjustment for the contractor.

Result

Throughout the course of the project, MBP worked with the owner
and contractor to assess, mitigate, and negotiate multiple delays. This
scheduling and cost review of the submitted claims resulted in an
average of 25% cost avoidance resulting from unforeseen issues and
delay claims. The bridge and raised roadway resulted in tremendous
economic benefit to the region and entire the east coast.

“The project is very unique and we’ve had a tremendous amount of challenges and we’ve had the good fortune to have MBP be our schedule team here to support all of our efforts. They’ve been able to keep us on point to identify critical tasks that the project team needs to keep our eye on. They’ve been a tremendous asset to me, to the project, and I know on behalf of the Port Authority, they really appreciate everything that the MBP team has brought to the Bayonne team. Thank you.”

Marc Matalon
Resident Engineer
GPI