Corven Engineering, an H&H company, provided a peer review for the replacement of US 90 over Biloxi Bay after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the low-level trestle bridge in 2005. The new, high-level bridge was constructed under a design-build contract and provides 95 feet of vertical clearance over the shipping channel. Traffic was restored to this vital link between Biloxi and Ocean Springs in February 2008. The 8,765-foot-long bridge consists of two separate structures with a 250-foot-long channel span.
The parallel structures are 57 feet and 69 feet wide and comprised of precast concrete Bulb-Tee girders. The channel span unit is a three-span continuous unit with post-tensioned, spliced girders. The foundations are designed for barge impact loads up to 2,850 kips and accounts for scour of the bay bottom.
Scope included independent verification of the substructure design and the post-tensioned channel span unit design using independent analysis, independent calculations, and verification of the member strength based on the contract drawings. The analysis considered scour of the bay bottom and the distribution of vessel collision force through the structure.
