Freyssinet helps DPWH assess fire damage to Quezon Bridge

MANILA, Philippines - Last April 10, a fire damaged the old Quezon Bridge in Manila, leaving six people injured and at least 70 families homeless.

Frey-Fil Corp., licensee of Freyssinet International Manila Inc. (FMI), quickly sent a team of experts, including an international consultant, to inspect the damage caused by the fire. The team examined the damage twice to accurately ascertain the extent of damage in coordination with the local government and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Aside from the obvious need for water jetting and repainting, the team also pinpointed certain repairs that need to be made. The DPWH also promptly conducted its own inspection and would erect steel frames in the meantime.

Freyssinet has offered to assist the DPWH in the process. “Back then, they did not have the technology to allow bridges space to flex during seismic activity,” explained Frey-FiI project director Ron Brinkman. “Fortunately, now we do. In this way, we will also be able to preserve the heritage of these bridges, which have stood the test of time. All this is in keeping with the new Seismic Code,” Brinkman said.

Brinkman was referring to Freyssinet’s proprietary design of dampers which act like shock absorbers and disperse the vibrations of seismic activity, and help bridges and buildings retain structural integrity and avoid the damage caused by earthquakes and similar phenomena.

Introducing this technology in the Philippines, Freyssinet creates project-specific dampers based on the needs of every undertaking. The company will also undertake the rehabilitation of the Ayala Bridge, which will save the government close to P1 billion in construction cost, and allow vessels to safely pass under it by increasing its navigational clearance.

In an unprecedented application of the new technology, Freyssinet will lift the entire bridge, making its destruction and replacement unnecessary, generating great savings of public funds.

Freyssinet has a long history in the Philippines dating back to 1974, through its association with its licensee, Frey-Fil Corp. (formerly known as Freyssinet Philippines Inc.).

Freyssinet has maintained its core business of post tensioning, but has vastly diversified extensively in the fields of cable stay supply and installation, design and maintenance of structures, precast segmental construction, bearing and movement joints, heavy lifting, lowering, raising and sliding (including multiple-points computer controlled), and design, supply and installation of post tensioning to PT slabs.

The company also continues to rehabilitate structures using crack injection, carbon fibers, additional prestressing, structural shotcrete, and underpinning.