The Esker Overhead is a 164 ft (50 m) simple span highway bridge, located on a constrained remote site in Northwestern British Columbia, Canada. To promote competitive bidding, alternative designs were developed in steel and precast, prestressed concrete with an option to construct the precast girder as a field post-tensioned segmental girder. A standard precast /-girder form was used with cast-in-place abutment diaphragms to accommodate post-tensioning anchors. The segmental option allowed the use of standard 45 ft (14 m) transport trucks and a single crane to erect the 31 ton (28 tonne) girder segments. The segmental concrete girder option saved the owner $137,325 (Canadian) over the alternate steel design on a total bridge bid of $1,000,000. This article describes the design, production, transportation and erection highlights of the project.
