NYSDOT Red Flag Emergency Girder Repair

After significant impact damage to a steel girder on a NYSDOT bridge in Westchester County, New York, High Structural Erectors provided heat-straightening supervision and steel repair as part of an emergency Red Flag response with Harrison & Burrowes Bridge Constructors.

A Red Flag is NYSDOT’s designation for a structural condition serious enough that the owner is notified immediately and has to act on it, not something that waits for the next capital cycle. It usually puts the owner in front of a single choice: replace the member, or restore it.

HSE’s work included controlled heat straightening of the damaged member, structural restraint, steel repairs, and inspection and testing. The girder was restored without a full member replacement, and the structure returned to service with minimal disruption to traffic.

That is the argument for heat straightening in one project. Replacing an impact-damaged girder means new steel, new shop drawings, fabrication lead time and a far larger traffic impact. Straightening it in place, under a repair procedure the owner’s engineer approves, gives the owner the bridge back in a fraction of the time, and HSE carries both the engineering and the field crews to do it.

Our guide to heat straightening for bridge girder repair sets out the method, its temperature limits and the conditions under which it is not the right repair.