INSPECTING AND EVALUATING NEW YORK'S EAST RIVER SUSPENSION BRIDGE CABLES

There are four major bridges that cross New York City's East River: the Brooklyn Bridge; the Williamsburg Bridge; the Manhattan Bridge; and the Queensboro Bridge. This paper discusses their maintenance problems, in-depth inspections, the extraordinary inspection required because of their age and years of deferred maintenance, the poor condition of the anchorage chambers, research and development conducted to be able to examine the strands within the splay castings, and their successful rehabilitation. Concerns about the condition of the Williamsburg Bridge cables are discussed, and the evaluation program of in-depth inspection and testing of various bridge cables is presented. There is also discussion of the results of wire sample analysis. Recommendations made to the city regarding the Williamsburg Bridge are presented. The concluding remarks reveal that in July 1988 the city was seriously considering three of the more than twenty entries in the Williamsburg Bridge Replacement Scheme Competition.