Two new bridges being built in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee, USA, are expected to be finished well ahead of schedule due to value engineering of the original design. Construction team Finley McNary Engineers and PCL Civil Constructors won the contract for the two new bridges last year. The original plan which was proposed by the Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division proposed a precast segmental top-down construction through progressive placement. The revised method retains the top-down element, but instead uses cast in place balanced cantilever construction. The redesign also uses 50% less longitudinal post-tensioning, provides a simpler post-tensioning layout, and eliminates the top slab anchor blisters, temporary towers in each span, and the superstructure segment precasting. When the project was awarded, the FHWA said it expected the bridges to take up to five years to complete, but PCL says construction should be complete by April next year, three years early. The Finley McNary/PCL bid was also US$4 million below the next lowest bid.
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