How Manhattan Road & Bridge Repaired Expansion Joints in a Single Shift with Phoscrete F3-HC
Bridge expansion joints take punishment. Every vehicle that crosses drives impact directly into the header concrete, and over time, that concrete breaks apart. Water gets in. Rebar corrodes. What started as hairline cracks becomes loose aggregate, spalled surfaces, and eventually a safety concern.
That was the situation facing Manhattan Road & Bridge on a highway bridge project in Southwest Florida. The expansion joint headers had deteriorated significantly: concrete had crumbled away from the joint edges, exposing corroded rebar and leaving voids that collected debris and water. The damage was not isolated to one spot. Multiple joints across the bridge deck needed attention.
The Challenge
Repair the damaged headers and get the bridge back to full traffic capacity, quickly. Extended lane closures on a busy Florida highway are expensive and create safety hazards for both crews and drivers.
The Solution
Manhattan Road & Bridge used Phoscrete F3-HC, a magnesium phosphate cement designed for horizontal concrete repairs on bridge decks.
How the Repair Worked
The crew arrived early morning and began by removing the deteriorated concrete from around the expansion joints, clearing out loose material, debris, and corroded reinforcement. Once the joint areas were prepped to sound concrete, the team mixed Phoscrete F3-HC on site and applied it by hand using trowels, packing the material into the joint headers and finishing the surface flush with the surrounding deck.
Phoscrete F3-HC bonds both chemically and mechanically to the existing concrete substrate. Unlike Portland cement-based repair materials, it does not form cold joints when applied in layers, and it does not shrink or crack as it cures. The material sets rapidly, reaching traffic-ready strength in approximately 30 minutes.
By early afternoon, the crew had completed multiple joint repairs across the bridge deck. The finished headers presented clean, smooth surfaces, flush with the deck, ready to handle traffic loads immediately.
Why It Matters
Manhattan Road & Bridge is one of the largest bridge contractors in the United States, ranked 7th nationally on Engineering News-Record’s Top Contractors in Transportation list for bridges. Founded in 1956 as M.J. Lee Construction Company, the company has built and repaired bridges across Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida for nearly seven decades. Their Florida operations, based out of Fort Myers, handle projects throughout the state.
When a contractor of that caliber selects Phoscrete F3-HC for bridge deck repairs, it reflects the product’s performance under real-world conditions: fast set times, durable bonds, and minimal disruption to traffic flow.
Project Summary
| Contractor | Manhattan Road & Bridge |
| Location | Southwest Florida |
| Date | April 28, 2026 |
| Product | Phoscrete F3-HC |
| Application | Bridge deck expansion joint header repair |
| Result | Multiple joints repaired and traffic-ready in a single shift |
| Contractor Rank | ENR Top 7 Bridge Contractor nationally |
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