Bridge Steel & Precast Erection in Pennsylvania
Lancaster-based, PennDOT-experienced, and self-performing across the Commonwealth, bridge steel erection, bridge rehabilitation and repair, heat straightening and precast field erection.
Request a QuoteA Pennsylvania Contractor
High Structural Erectors works out of 1905 Old Philadelphia Pike in Lancaster. The company was formed in 2013 from the field operations groups of High Steel Structures and High Concrete Group, and the work behind it runs back to 1931, when High Welding Company started in Lancaster and argued the case for welded bridge girders to state highway officials.
That matters on a Pennsylvania job for a practical reason: the crews, the erection engineers and the fabrication shop are in the same state as the bridge.
- Headquarters in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
- Self-performing statewide, and across NY, DE, MD and VA
- Licensed Professional Engineers in Pennsylvania on staff
Pennsylvania Bridge Work
Jim Thorpe Memorial Bridge, Carbon County. Weathering steel plate girders for PennDOT, completed 2017 with Allan Myers as general contractor.
Route 22/322 over I-81, Dauphin County. Replaced on PennDOT’s emergency schedule after a strike, with the steel set over a live interstate.
- PennDOT bridge steel erection and staged construction
- Bridge rehabilitation, jacking, bearing replacement and strongbacks
- Heat straightening and emergency response to girder strikes
When a Pennsylvania Bridge Is Struck
The Route 22/322 bridge over I-81 near Harrisburg was hit on 9 May 2013. PennDOT needed the structure replaced rather than repaired, and needed it back in service. High Steel Structures took the fabrication contract on 23 May, two weeks after the incident, and the field group that became HSE that year erected the steel.
- 30 I-girders and two box girders, 365 tons in all
- Erected 12–26 August: fourteen days over a live interstate
- 95 calendar days from notice to proceed through completed erection
Emergency work rewards contractors who can compress the front end of a project, not just the field portion. Shop capacity, engineering, rigging plans and crews all moved in parallel with a design that was still being finalized.
Call 717.390.4200Erection Engineering on Constrained Sites
The Jim Thorpe Memorial Bridge carries Route 903 over the Lehigh River in Carbon County. Steep slopes, the river and an active railroad beneath the bridge limited where cranes could stand, and historic canal locks found in the channel during construction ruled out falsework there.
- No shoring towers at all, girders braced and lifted in pairs
- 2,199 tons of weathering steel plate girders from High Steel
- Six cranes over the course of the work
Completed in 2017 with Allan Myers as general contractor. The plan was developed with the design consultant rather than handed to the field, which is what let the shoring go away.
Bridge Steel Rehabilitation
Steel Repair and Heat Straightening in Pennsylvania
Not every damaged girder needs replacing. Controlled heating patterns and restraint return a bent beam or column to shape in place, at shorter lead time and lower cost than cutting the member out, and the repair is documented and inspected for the owner and the engineer of record.
- Impact damage, fatigue cracking, section loss, bearing and diaphragm repairs
- Repair procedures and heat-straightening plans prepared by HSE’s own PEs
- Temporary support, jacking and lift plans for the owner’s engineer to review
Certified, and Engineered In-House
The crews are HSE employees, the lift plans come from HSE’s own professional engineers, and the rigging is HSE’s. On a Pennsylvania job that means the people planning the erection and the people performing it work for the same company.
- AISC Certified Erector with Bridge Endorsement
- PCI-qualified for precast field erection
- Licensed professional engineers on staff for erection engineering and lift planning
Pennsylvania Precast Erection
Penn State Health Hershey parking structure. A 1,235-space total-precast garage, with HSE named as the PCI Certified Erector, a 2021 PCI Design Award winner.
Marquis Parking Garage, Easton. A 308-space precast deck, 50,225 square feet of precast package, 2026 PCI Design Award Honorable Mention.
Drosdick Hall, Villanova University. Architectural precast on a $125 million, 150,000-square-foot expansion that opened in April 2024.
- PCI Certified Erector, Categories A and S2
- Parking structures, architectural cladding and structural wall panels
- PCI Certified Field Auditors on staff
Where We Have Worked in Pennsylvania
Recent and past Pennsylvania work spans Carbon County, Dauphin County, Northampton County, Delaware County and Lancaster County, PennDOT districts, higher-education campuses, health systems and operating industrial plants.
Crews mobilize from Lancaster, which puts most of eastern and central Pennsylvania inside a short drive. For an over-height load strike or a red-flagged member, that response time is the point.
- Emergency bridge strike response, call 717.390.4200
- Owners, PennDOT, general contractors and precasters
- Subcontractor delivery; erection engineering and detailing in house
Working in Pennsylvania?
Send us the plans and we will tell you how we would erect it.