Life-Cycle Cost Design Basis for the New Port Mann Cable-Stayed Bridge
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LIFE-CYCLE COST committee that developed the right of way provided for the Guide Specification for Segmental Reference Concept. DESIGN BASIS FOR Concrete Bridges, and has been Selection of the preferred active in AASHTO bridge code THE NEW proponent based on NPV set the developments on behalf of PTI PORT MANN CABLE- framework for a rational decision and ASBI. Mr. Goodyear is a process, monetizing all program STAYED BRIDGE graduate of Cornell University in costs - right of way, design, Ithaca, NY. He is a recipient of construction cost, construction the Beavers Award for schedule, developer’s risk, toll Engineering, and is a member of operations, and life-cycle the National Academy of maintenance - in order to Engineering. determine the lowest net present SUMMARY value price for the development. It is in the context of this process The Port Mann Bridge-Highway 1 that the twin deck composite steel Project in Vancouver, BC was cable-stayed structure in service tendered as a 40-year concession, today was created. upgrading approximately 30 km The presentation will review the of the Trans-Canadian Highway basis for key decisions on including a new crossing of the structure type, layout, form and Fraser River between Coquitlam design details leading to the final and Surrey, BC. The concession design solution. The special period included the time for advantages with the steel design construction and allowed a broad form chosen relating to the DAVID GOODYEAR range of design options for framing plan, connection details, achieving the lowest net present and constructability will be AUTHOR value (NPV) to design, build, discussed in relation to options operate and maintain the upgraded that were considered and David Goodyear, PE, SE, PEng highway facility. eliminated based on the NPV is a Senior Vice President and The new Port Mann Bridge is the metric for reliability and best life Chief Bridge Engineer for ‘tollgate’ for the concession, and cycle cost. The presentation will T.Y.Lin International. He has 35 along with an adjoining include review of the erection years of bridge design experience, interchange, was the critical path procedures employed to manage beginning his bridge engineering for project delivery to initial the complexity associated with career with Arvid Grant in tolling. The Reference Concept erecting twin decks supported off Olympia, WA. Mr. Goodyear was developed by the Province served of a common tower. the Design Manager and Chief as the basis for the RFP, and was Engineer for the new Port Mann based on maintaining the older 5 Bridge, and was the Chief lane bridge, and adding a second 5 Engineer for design of the new lane bridge for the 10 lane Colorado River Bridge at Hoover thoroughfare required for the Dam. Mr. Goodyear has been a project. Right of way and member of the PTI Committee on alignment were established in the Cable-Stayed Bridges since its RFP for this Reference Concept. inception in 1983, and is the The new bridge developed in former chairman of that response to the RFP replaced the committee leading publication of Reference Concept with a new 10 the 5th and 6th Editions of the PTI lane steel-composite cable-stayed Recommendations. Mr. Goodyear bridge, located within the same was a member of the PTI ad-hoc LIFE-CYCLE COST DESIGN BASIS FOR THE NEW PORT MANN CABLE-STAYED BRIDGE Introduction operations, and set forth the terms and processes for a comprehensive development program. The Port Mann Bridge Highway 1 project was tendered in 2007 as part of the Gateway Selection of the preferred proponent was based Development in Vancouver, BC. The Project on a two-step selection process after short- was part of the BC government’s ambitious listing. Invitation to submit a price proposal program to upgrade the transportation network could only follow the submission of an in the Vancouver Region in order to further the acceptable, compliant technical proposal for the impressive commercial growth and economic entire 30+ km development. Selection of the vitality of the Region. The Program was preferred proponent was to be based on centered on a progressive approach to public submission of the best net present value (NPV) works development, teaming government with of the annual concession payments proposed for private developers to deliver major the development among those who submitted a improvements in transportation infrastructure in compliant technical proposal. a fraction of the time of conventional delivery The Connect BC Team was led by Macquarie as through the use of public-private partnerships. concessionaire, with Kiewit-Flatiron Partnership The scope of the project was impressive. as the DB contractor, and with TY Lin Approximately 30 km of highway would be International leading the Fraser Crossing design upgraded, including the venerable bridge and Hatch Mott McDonald-MMM (H5M) crossing of the Fraser River. (Fig 1) The leading the on-shore design. program called for doubling the capacity over The timing of the tender submission happened to the river, expanding the narrow 5-lane facility to coincide with one of the worst economic 10 lanes. For those who sat in the daily backup recessions in the US since the Great Depression, of Hwy 1 in Surrey, the expansion would prompted by the mortgage banking debacle provide welcome relief from the bottleneck in created by the US real estate market. In the time access to Coquitlam, Vancouver and the north between selection of the preferred proponent and side of the Fraser River. financial close for the project, the financial markets retracted to the point where the financial The Project: The new Port Mann Bridge is plan tendered for the project was in jeopardy. the centerpiece of, and the tollgate for, the major The BC Government stepped in to address the redevelopment of Highway 1 crossing the Fraser financial crisis by forming a Crown Corporation, River into Vancouver, BC. The scope and TICorp, as a replacement for Macquarie as the complexity of the project make it one of the concessionaire. The project then advanced to most ambitious highway transportation projects closing, with NTP granted to the Design- in North America. The form of delivery makes Builder, Kiewit-Flatiron Partnership in March, the project even more impressive in that the 2009. entire development was tendered as a private concession. The instructions to proposers called Project Development: The RFP for the for a privately financed development with a 40- project included a Reference Concept (Figs 2 year concession that included the time of and 3) covering the entire corridor. For the construction. The Request for Proposals (RFP) Frasier River Bridge, the Reference Concept for this massive project was one of the most called for upgrading the existing bridge and comprehensive and masterfully crafted building an adjacent 5 lane cable-stayed bridge specifications that this author has seen in over to provide the required 10 traffic lanes. The 30 years in the transportation business. Twenty- original Port Mann Bridge was designed as a 4- eight schedules covered every aspect of lane bridge, converted to 5 lanes for the traffic procurement, design, construction and volumes on Route 1. The original Port Mann 1 of 15 Bridge was a 366m main span deck tied arch, documents and expected permitting. The RFP with the balance of the 2 km crossing comprised also included a number of restrictions on of plate girder approaches. The tender alignments and pier locations, most notably that documents included documentation of one could not have a pier on the south bank of significant numbers of fatigue crack indications the Fraser River, adjacent to the pier already on in the approaches, and uncertain conditions for the south bank for the old bridge. The last the orthotropic decking of the steel arch main limitation was one that we questioned, since a span. Members of the Design-Build Partnership pier on the south bank of the river would have had experience working on past upgrades to the allowed a considerably shorter main span, and a bridge, and offered a first hand perspective to lower initial cost. Considerations for the risk of the concessionaire on the maintenance effort rejection, the complications for hydraulics, and associated with the existing bridge. the impact of crossing the CN rail yard for access all led to abandoning the short span The net present value approach to selection is alternatives. Once settling on the 470-meter consistent with the life cycle cost basis for main span, the focus was exclusively on cable- design that is the ambition of most conventional stayed alternatives. design-bid-build and design-build projects in the US. But being a concession, where the The initial screening study of alternatives proponent carries the cost and risk of operations, focused on the Reference Concept for keeping this delivery program improves upon the the old bridge and constructing a new 5-lane subjective life cycle cost program of structure. Once the short spans were eliminated, conventional delivery through an objective, hard the inquiry broadened to look at both 5 and 10 dollar assessment for design, construction and lane new bridge options. Furthermore, the operations. ongoing assessment of maintenance and financial risk associated with extending the old Amortizing the initial cost of construction is a bridge for another 40 years trended towards the major component of the NPV metric. Since all merit of a total replacement. The principals of revenue needed to pay down the first cost is KF viewed the risk of pricing the scope creep from tolls, availability is also a metric that needs generally associated with a major retrofit as to be quantified as part of the financing strategy. uncompetitive. The lenders engineers Durability, maintainability, access for apparently agreed – there were visible sighs of inspection, forecast of repair and maintenance relief when the decision to build all new for 10 were all factors that affected the financial model lanes was announced to the lender’s engineer used to develop the project.