Heat Straightening & Emergency Bridge Repair
Rapid response for impact-damaged bridge girders, beams and columns, a repair-focused alternative to full member replacement that shortens lead time, reduces demolition and returns the structure to service faster.
Request a QuoteHeat Straightening & Emergency Bridge Repair
HSE supports bridge steel heat straightening and emergency repair services involving damaged steel members from over-height bridge strikes, section replacement and heat straightening supervision services, often requiring complex planning, owner and contractor coordination, and specialty training and execution. Our work aids bridge owners in the repair and extension of service life of their structures even after a significant impact.
- Rapid response to girder strikes and impact damage
- Repair-focused alternative to full member replacement
- Licensed Professional Engineers on staff
- Shorter lead time, less demolition, faster return to service
Bridge Girder Strikes
Over-height loads bend flanges and web stiffeners; heat straightening restores the member in place under controlled temperature and restraint, often in a single night closure, with no new steel to fabricate and ship.
- Impact-damaged girders straightened in place
- Night closures and MOT-sensitive work
- Procedure approved by the engineer of record
How Heat Straightening Works
Controlled heating patterns and restraint let the steel return to shape without exceeding the temperatures that change its properties. Each repair is engineered, documented and inspected, what the owner and the engineer of record need to accept the member back into service.
- Engineered heating patterns and restraint
- Temperature control and documentation
- Inspection and acceptance support
Emergency Response
When a structure is struck, the schedule is measured in hours. HSE mobilizes crews, equipment and an engineered repair plan so the road, the rail line or the plant is back in service as fast as the repair allows.
- Rapid mobilization across PA, NY, DE, MD and VA
- Damage assessment with in-house engineers
- Repair through member replacement where straightening is not approved
A Forklift Strike, Straightened in Place
A forklift operator struck a structural steel beam inside an operating commercial printing plant in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Plant management called HSE in to assess the damage.
HSE evaluated the struck member on site, established how far it had moved and whether the load path was compromised, and produced a heat straightening plan, the straighten-or-replace decision made before any steel was cut. The beam was then straightened in place.
Replacing it would have meant shoring, demolition, new steel, shop drawings and fabrication lead time, and handing over the floor beneath it for the duration. Straightening it did not.
- Assessed, planned and straightened by one contractor
- Repaired in place, inside an operating facility
- No replacement steel and no fabrication lead time
Damage Assessment & Repair Engineering
HSE's in-house PEs evaluate impact-damaged girders, floor beams and bracing, and produce the repair procedure, heat-straightening plan, temporary support design and lift plan the owner's engineer reviews, without waiting on an outside firm.
- Structural evaluation of struck members
- Heat-straightening procedures and repair details
- Temporary support, lift and rigging plans
- Submittals prepared for the owner's bridge engineer
The Least Impact on Traffic and Pedestrians
The repair plan starts from the traffic plan. Night and weekend windows, lane-by-lane work, protected pedestrian routes and staged closures are engineered into the procedure so the owner is not choosing between a safe bridge and an open road.
- Night and weekend windows, lane-by-lane where the structure allows
- Protected pedestrian routes maintained wherever the structure allows
- MOT sequencing submitted with the repair procedure
What Comes With the Crew
The certifications a DOT, owner or facility manager asks for, held in house.
AISC Certified Erector
With Bridge Endorsement, the combination most state DOTs and bridge primes require.
Licensed Professional Engineers
Repair procedures engineered and documented in house. PE licensure in ten states.
Experienced Ironworkers
Crews that have straightened girders under live traffic and columns inside running plants.
Part of the High Family
Replacement steel from High Steel Structures when straightening is not the answer.
Can We Help?
Have a struck girder, a bent column or an emergency steel repair?
Send the plans or piece schedule with the let or bid date, location and any staging or MOT constraints, a link to your plan room or ITB works.