Towering over the interstate highway construction project in the middle of the night, beam expert Theron Zipp has no time to rest, contemplate the ways of Zen or even crack a smile. Although he's strapped into a safety harness, decisions are life-and-death up there.
Forty percent of his work is like that.
"That's where a lot of the challenge is, working at night, in the dark and working that high," he said.
"That high" is 120-feet in the case of the final beams connecting the overpass across I-95, which are scheduled to be placed in late July. Actually, four beams, weighing in the 60- to 80-ton range will be used to traverse the gap seen by motorists passing through the Springfield Interstate Interchange on a daily basis.
"We're going to try to do it in one night," Zipp said.
It's not like snapping a Lego into place, though. Traffic has to be stopped, cranes have to line the beams up, and steelworkers have to bolt and weld while the beams are held in place by cables. The 60- to 80-ton beams, that is. A 60-ton beam weighs 120,000 pounds.
"You got to hold your beams level while you weld," Zipp said.
After the beams are lined up, it takes about 60-90 minutes to work on them. Workers will get the beam up, splice it in and finally get the weight to rest on the concrete piers.
"So it's not what they call a suspended load anymore," Zipp said.
Zipp estimates the job placing the final beams will last three hours for the whole thing. In addition, traffic on I-95 will have to be stopped for the entire night.
"They do it in intervals of 15 minutes," he said.
Edmund Okerchiri, a Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) engineer, noted the complexities of the situation. He threw around engineering terms like "gusset plate," "beam curvature" and "diaphragm side" like they were common knowledge. Okerchiri agreed on the toughest part.
"Lifting it up and setting it exactly where it has to go" was the most difficult part, he said.
Although construction workers have VDOT standards to meet on each step in the highway project, not every beam is exactly the same.
"There are a few instances where we allow bolts on the beam side and a weld on the diaphragm side," Okerchiri said.
ZIPP OVERSEES a crew of eight or nine steelworkers every night during the week. Safety is the No. 1 concern for the steelworkers, and Zipp has never had a fatality on his crew. He always makes sure everyone has a harness and enough lighting at night so it resembles daytime. Zipp remembers earlier this year when a worker suffered a fall on that same overpass and died. That worker was a decker, responsible for laying aluminum decks, and not a steelworker like his crew.
"I was right there when it happened," Zipp said.
Interchange information specialist Steve Titunik knows the importance for safety.
"The potential for accidents it tremendous. If there's an error, it impacts everything," Titunik said.
Titunik compared the process of bridge beam construction to a symphony. The highway warning signs, traffic stoppage, cranes in place, welders and steelworkers all rely on timing.
"It's orchestrating a symphony between men and materials. You just can't go out there, lift it up and match holes. [It's] the finesse you need to be able to have a successful operation," Titunik said.
Zipp lives in Lancaster, Pa., commuting to Springfield on Monday and returning home on Friday. While putting horseshoes on a horse over 15 years ago, he had a revelation when he looked over and saw a steelworker working on a bridge. He decided that's what he wanted to do instead of a career as a blacksmith. He went from iron to steel beams.
"I started out as an ironworker and learned by experience," he said.
Zipp's father was a career policeman, and his brother an accountant.
Zipp is employed by High Steel Structures Inc., the nation's leader in this type of steelwork, said spokesperson Mark Vogel.
"We serve mostly on the Eastern half of the United States," Vogel said.
Monday, July 21 is the date that the steelworkers have scheduled for the final step in the overpass coming from I-495 to I-95 south. It's not the end of the job for Zipp, though.
"There's going to be another one right beside it," he said.