The January 17, 1994, Northridge 6.6 earthquake did immense damage to many of the region’s vital traffic arteries. One serious disruption was the closing of the I-10 Santa Monica freeway due to the collapse of two bridges. The 1-10 is the busiest freeway in the nation.

The Los Angeles region was estimated to suffer economic losses of up to $1 million a day, due to the freeway’s closure. Contractor C.C. Myers was awarded the job to completely rebuild the two bridges with a significant bonus of $200,000 a day for early completion.

C.C. Myers used Rapid Set® SET Control® density fill to backfill the bridges’ approach slab areas. While normal CDF would not have been able to receive loads for several days, Rapid Set® CDF was set up to receive a load within 30 to 60 minutes after it was placed into the holes.

Rapid Set concrete was placed over the Rapid Set CDF, which allowed heavy equipment to access the remaining work on the bridge decks. Normal concrete procedures require the approach slab concrete to set up for 4 days before allowing traffic. Rapid Set Concrete reduced the time to 2-3 hours per location. Using Rapid Set CDF and Rapid Set Concrete saved over five days on the construction schedule. C.C. Myers finished the job 74 days ahead of schedule and received a $14.5 million bonus.