Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYPJ) proposes new bus terminals and other infrastructures to replace existing bus terminal and ramps due to the operational constraints and high maintenance cost of the existing structure. CHI has developed a detailed 3D Revit model for the new bus terminal ramps for coordination with other replacement facilities. The 3D BIM model includes foundation, columns, floor beams, girders, concrete deck, bracing members and traffic barriers. The BIM model can be utilized for Finite Element analyses directly which significantly improves the efficiency of the project.

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CHI also performed 3D finite element analyses for the ramp structure under dead, live, thermal, wind, and seismic loads in Midas Civil. Based on AASHTO LRFD specifications, CHI performed the conceptual design of the ramp structures and proposed expansion joints’ locations and vertical braces layouts. The main challenge of the project is the geometrical constraints: long spans (with some girders with 180 ft in length) and low vertical clearance limiting the allowable depth of girders to 4.5 ft which resulted in overstress and large deflections in these girders. To resolve this issue, CHI proposed vertical trusses along the longitudinal direction connecting different levels thus floor beams can be connected with truss verticals, therefore, reducing the effective span length. The reduced span length effectively eliminates overstressing as well as large deflection issues.