Background

The Third Street Bridge, also known as the “Lefty O’Doul Bridge”, is a bascule bridge known as a heel trunnion bascule drawbridge. It was designed and patented by the Strauss Engineering Corporation, of the same Joseph Strauss that served as Chief Engineer on the Golden Gate Bridge. Strauss Engineering constructed four of these unique bridge structures in California from 1923 to 1929 and were all placed along the Sacramento River. The bridge was opened to traveling public in 1933 and it was retrofitted in 1999, prior to the opening of the adjacent ballpark.

The Third Street Bridge is now scheduled for rehabilitation work to sustain the integrity of the bridge and to address corrosion issues. The project scope will involve repairs or replacement of damaged steel members, welds, concrete counterweights, support piles, bridge fenders, spot removal of rust and associated priming and recoating, removal and replacement of the steel bridge deck and other associated work.

With a large portion of the work occurring above or within the navigable waters of Mission Bay and the Mission Bay Channel, extensive work will be performed from barges including structural restoration both above and below the waterline.

Technical Approach

This Third Street Bridge Rehabilitation project from San Francisco Public Works was procured through a Request for Qualifications with a short timeframe. The single-stage pursuit process placed more emphasis on the Statement of Qualifications to articulate California Engineering Contractors’ project team, experience, and preconstruction and construction approaches to the San Francisco Public Works selection committee.

Although this was the first project between Mission Critical and CEC, our team seamlessly melded with the CEC team to work through team charrettes and stage review cycles to ensure that critical approaches, technical elements, and value engineering aspects were included in the submitted document. With the tight timeline for submittal, the team had to organize and mobilize quickly. The Mission Critical writing group developed technical content and narratives while our design group coordinated page layouts and technical graphics in parallel. 

Impact

Mission Critical’s ability to quickly ramp up to rapidly develop content – through interviews, discovery, and original writing – is a key benefit we bring to our client teams, both new and long-standing.

On this Third Street project, Mission Critical concisely narrated CEC’s capacities, systems, and experiences relative to the rehabilitation scope. We extended this effort to uncover connections in experience, personnel and approach that supported the value of CEC in meeting the City’s goals for the project. Ultimately, Mission Critical and CEC created a successful document to reflect their winning team for this Third Street Bridge Rehabilitation Project.