Water Authority Pipe Support Bridges

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Industrial
Project Team Members:

Owner:
Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water
Utility Authority

Engineer:
Boyle Engineering Corporation

Contractor:
AUI, Inc

Technical Description:
Width: 22, 22, 19, 12 & 33 ft
Span: 90 ft
Style: Connector
Finish: Weathering Steel
Decking: Concrete
Installation Date: December 2006

The San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Project will supply the

majority of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Areas drinking
water by transporting raw water from the Rio Grande
River to a new water treatment plant. The Water Authority
realized a need for bridges to support the pipelines and
turned to Boyle Engineering.

Since these pipelines are the primary water source in the

future, they are designed for full seismic loading
including vertical and horizontal accelerations, said Robert
Hawthorne, Project Engineer for Boyle Engineering.

Boyles plans called for five Continental Connector

style bridges. These structures are among the largest
pipe support structures CONTECH has installed to date.
The chords are HSS 20 x 12 x1/2 and made of A500
Grade C tubular steel, while the balance of the structure
is weathering steel. Each of the structures supports a
72 diameter pipe and one supports an additional 66
diameter pipe.

Everything had to be just right. We erected them from one

side of the channel and had to get three to four cranes out
there because of the bearing loads we were dealing with,
said Joe Sanchez Project Manager for AUI, Inc. The bridge project was challenging and enjoyable.
Overall it went very well and the support we had from CONTECH was very good.

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