A massive marvel
Neither size, nor governments, nor bald eagles have stymied construction of the new $2.4 billion Woodrow Wilson Bridge

by Brett Lieberman
for Virginia Business
May 2007

Growing up in Charlotte, N.C., James T. Ruddell used to spend hours with his Girder and Panel erector set. Using plastic posts and beams, he would design elaborate trestles, towers and bridges. “I’ve always loved to build things,” says Ruddell.

Yet it wasn’t until years later while taking a surveying class at Stanford University that Ruddell put the pieces together in terms of a career. He realized he could pursue his passion for building, work outdoors, use his intellect and not have to wear a coat and tie every day by becoming a civil engineer.

Ruddell has come a long way from plastic girders. These days, he’s building with structural steel — 80 million pounds to be exact — as he oversees construction of one of the largest and most complicated infrastructure projects in the nation: the new $2.4 billion Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

Building twin drawbridge spans and soaring arches across the Potomac River is only part of the challenge. As Parsons Brinckerhoff’s construction manager for the bridge replacement, Ruddell must navigate the fiefdoms and bureaucracies of two states, the federal government and the city of Washington, D.C., not to mention supervising 32 prime contractors and 200 subcontractors. His overarching goal: bring the project in on time and on budget.

Six years into construction, Ruddell is on target. The bridge and four interchanges, which connect Alexandria, Va., to Prince Georges County in Maryland along the I-95 Capital Beltway, are 70 percent complete. In fact, work is running ahead as Ruddell and more than 1,000 workers sprint toward the opening of the bridge’s final river span by summer 2008. That’s no small feat considering recent spikes in the cost for steel, concrete and other construction materials.

Plus, the margin of error increases with huge public works. Consider the recent history of Boston’s $14.6 billion “Big Dig.” The central artery/tunnel under downtown Boston has suffered from cost overruns and construction delays. Last summer a woman died after heavy ceiling tiles collapsed in an Interstate 90 connector tunnel. Her family has filed a wrongful death suit against the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and several contractors involved in the project’s design and construction, including Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, a joint venture serving as the Big Dig’s management consultant.
On the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, there has been one fatality. A crane operator on the Maryland land side was electrocuted in 2001 when his crane hit a power line. The accident occurred on an interchange. Overall, the bridge’s safety record is significantly better than the national average for road and bridge construction, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

And the project comes in below the national average for lost workdays — accidents that result in an injury, which prevents an employee from working.
Besides the safety and quality issues inherent with mega projects, the bridge replacement has faced environmental challenges as well. At one point during construction, hundreds of fish in the Potomac River began dying from high-intensity shockwaves, while bald eagles — a threatened species — took up residence nearby.

With so many challenges, Ruddell’s ability to steer this structural ship is drawing recognition. In 2006 the Construction Management Association of America, an industry trade group with 4,200 members, named the 52-year-old senior engineering manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff Construction Services its “Person of the Year.” Among his congratulatory letters was one from President Bush who wrote, “Your efforts … reflect the true spirit of America.”

Ruddell’s leadership and innovation on the bridge (as well as other Northern Virginia projects) will be recognized this November when he receives the 2007 Construction Management Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Understated in manner, Ruddell isn’t one to gloat over accolades. “He’s what makes the project a success, but you’ll never hear it from his mouth,” says Bruce D’Agostino, executive director of the McLean-based Construction Management Association of America (CMAA). “This guy is always talking about the team, which is why everybody is willing to bust their chops for him.”

A bad bottleneck
Replacement of the 45-year-old, six-lane Woodrow Wilson Bridge began in 2001. It capped years of feuding between Virginia and Maryland and the federal government, who sparred over issues such as price, union vs. non-union workers and maintenance over a replacement.

Originally completed in 1961, the Potomac River crossing serves as a major commuter and trucking link on Interstate 95. However, it was one of the worst bottlenecks on the East Coast, because the eight-lane Capital Beltway on both the Virginia and Maryland sides narrowed into six lanes at the bridge. To make matters worse, the bridge closed frequently so ships could pass beneath its draw span. The result: huge backups. Designed for 75,000 vehicles, the old bridge carried more than 200,000 vehicles a day.

When the first of two wider river spans opened in spring 2006, commuters saw some improvement in congestion. However, a more dramatic difference is expected when the northern span opens during summer 2008. The new bridge will boast 12 lanes, double the size of the old six-lane bridge. In addition, there will be a shoulder for vehicles to pull over and a 12-foot bike/pedestrian pathway. A 70-foot clearance will be 25 feet higher than the old structure, reducing the number of bridge closings by more than 200 a year.

When D’Agostino visited the project during the opening of the first span, he was struck by the congenial atmosphere of the multiple parties. After asking around, he says everyone cited the same reason: Ruddell. By juggling several roles — mentor, coach and referee — the engineer has managed to keep dozens of parties from each other’s throats. “Jim’s biggest challenge is like a conductor in an orchestra — keeping them all on the same tune,” says Russell Fuhrman, a Parsons Brinckerhoff senior vice president and executive project manager for Potomac Crossing Consultants, which oversees the project.
Keeping everyone on the same page, says Ruddell, requires a team approach. He focuses on communication and frequently brings all the players together. Monthly meetings with contractors have helped head off or resolve problems. Bonus incentives — some of as much as $500,000 for contractors who meet deadlines — have provided inspiration.

Safety is another priority, and Ruddell says he emphasizes the importance of quality control. “Quality issues are the greatest challenge for construction of any type,” he adds. “You can do 99.7 percent of the work correctly, but the three-tenths of 1 percent that is not correct can be severe enough to paint the entire project another color.”

Ruddell’s ability to keep egos in check, including his own, while supervising 1,500 workers is a testament to his skills and one of the reasons why CMAA honored him. Ruddell is flattered by the attention, but remains low key. The framed CMAA award sits on the floor in a corner of his office a couple miles from the bridge. “I think there are a lot of deserving people,” he says of the award’s recognition. Yet, even Ruddell concedes that “working on a project of this size comes with some notoriety, so I was very pleased and surprised to be selected.”

Marquee projects like the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge come around only once or twice in a career. The only thing comparable in size for Ruddell was a $2 billion liquefied natural gas plant in Saudi Arabia in 1977, when he was just starting out. He says the bridge project is more complex thanks to the jurisdictional headaches, tight deadlines and engineering challenges.

For starters, Ruddell and his team had to anchor the bridge in a foundation built on more than 1,000 220-foot pilings. The preferred method of building a foundation on bedrock — at a depth of 450 feet — was impractical.

Another challenge was working with what is believed to be the world’s widest bridge draw span, weighing in at 2,000 tons. So precise were the details that engineers had to calculate the weight of paint to ensure that the stainless steel span is balanced for a 150-horsepower motor to raise it for passing ships. Ruddell likens the project to building “a huge Swiss watch. [It’s something] that has to raise and lower for 75 years and maintain 1/8-inch tolerances, be able to accommodate Metro rail in the future and operate for generations to come.”

The old bridge was the only one on the interstate system owned by the Federal Highway Administration. As part of the funding deal for its replacement, Virginia and Maryland will own the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Maryland will maintain it and Virginia will pay half the costs.

Unique bridge design
Many aspects of the bridge design are unique. Hollow concrete blocks are strung together like pearls on a chain with a high-strength steel cable, pulled together with almost 2 million pounds of force. When pulled tight, the blocks form V-shaped piers that jut nearly 75-feet up and create arches over the river to support the bridge’s 80 million pounds of steel.

It is the world’s largest bridge of its kind utilizing the V-Pier design. A Fort Lauderdale bridge using the same design, for example, cost about $80 million. The Woodrow Wilson Bridge segment will cost about $700 million. New techniques and materials include stainless steel rebar, which will stand up better to the elements as well as salt from winter road treatments on the draw-span decks.

Yet, all the innovation couldn’t account for surprises along the way. For instance, work on the 84-ton pilings came to a stop on the second day after scores of fish started to die. The culprit turned out to be shockwaves, coming from the hammer used to bang the pilings into the ground. Normally used to build offshore rigs, the hammer sent shockwaves with a force akin to dropping a Jeep Cherokee from 100 feet.

To deal with the problem, Ruddell called in an expert who had worked on Navy torpedoes. He recommended pumping air around the hammer to drown out the noise. That simple change dropped the shockwave level from 20 pounds per square inch to 2 PSI, earning the project a national environmental award. Plus, it saved the fish.

Work was threatened again when a pair of bald eagles relocated to Rosalie Island in the Potomac, close to the work site and in violation of the project’s environmental permits. Eventually, an 84-acre bald eagle sanctuary was created on the Maryland side of the island. The raptors, which construction workers nicknamed George and Martha, ultimately produced 11 fledglings over four years, attracting widespread interest.

People followed the family’s progress through regular updates and photos on the bridge’s Web Site. When Martha was attacked last year by a younger bald eagle competing for George’s affection, the event sparked a mini soap opera with workers taking Martha’s side against “the other woman.” She recovered and returned to the pair’s nest. Another public outpouring ensued in September when Martha struck a tree or a power line, suffering a wing injury, which prompted veterinarians to euthanize the much-loved bird.

Timing is critical
On such a massive project, timing is critical. To complete the bridge by summer 2008, six contractors need to finish their work on time. If one slips, the entire schedule falls apart. So far, contractors are hitting targeted dates, because some of them worked on both spans simultaneously, which boosted efficiency.

To keep the peace and the schedule, Ruddel has cut some creative deals. One deal brokered with National Harbor — a $2 billion hotel/ convention center and mixed-used project going up on the Maryland shore — allowed a concrete batch plant to locate on its property in exchange for ramps connecting to the highway interchanges. Executed between Maryland and National Harbor, the agreement included more than $100 million in infrastructure improvements that connect the Beltway, I-295 and Oxen Hill Road. It saved both parties millions, says Ruddell.

Without the riverside location, the large concrete pours lasting up to 53 nonstop hours and producing 6,400 cubic yards for the V-shaped arches would have been impossible. But that’s not a word that seems to be in Ruddell’s vocabulary.