THE LOCATION
Trenton Transit Center, Trenton, New Jersey
THE CHALLENGE
To demolish and rebuild two new head house buildings and to design / build 130-ft long pedestrian bridges over the Assunpink Creek and NJ Transit & AMTRAK railroad tracks. Pedestrian access to New Jersey Transit bus and rail, SEPTA bus and rail and AMTRAK trains was maintained during the two year $56M renovation of the 46,000 sf Transit Center.
OUR RESPONSE
Thomas P. Carney, Inc. designed and built a 130-ft long temporary pedestrian bridge over the Assunpink Creek, which is adjacent to the Wallenberg head house. This allowed safe 24/7 access of passengers to the Transit Center. The original design called for the construction of half of the head house building alongside of a pedestrian tunnel, followed by shifting the tunnel once the first half of the head house was completed. This not only posed safety and access risks to the passengers, but it would have resulted in work down time and remobilization by each trade for the second half of the building construction.
The station, which serves 4,600 passengers per day, remained occupied and operational during the entire construction period. A significant amount of work was completed during off-peak hours. During required AMTRAK power showdowns and NJ Transit and SEPTA train service shutdowns, work times were limited to 45 minutes.
THE DETAILS
The Trenton Transit Center project consisted of additions and major renovations to the existing train station over AMTRAK’s Northeast Corridor, the most heavily traveled train tracks in the U.S. The project required demolition of the existing head houses, added new head house buildings at each end of the existing station and renovation of the existing concourse. The new head houses were placed on steel and wood piles 45-ft to 50-ft deep.
During construction of these buildings, TPC installed pedestrian bridges to allow access to the operating station. The bridge spanning the Assunpink Cree was 110-ft long and 30-ft high. A second 130-ft long bridge spanned a parking lot.
