ANDA BRIDGE CONNECTING BOLINAO MAINLAND PANGASINAN TO THE ISLAND MUNICIPALITY OF ANDA, in the boundary between the Lingayen Gulf and the West Philippine Sea. Built during the Administration of President Fidel Valdez Ramos, Construction was awarded to Foundation Specialists, Inc., Mobilization started in 1992 and Construction was Completed on February 29, 1996. The completed Bridge was Inaugurated by H.E President Fide. V. Ramos on March 16, 1996: (The aerial picture shown here above was taken on Inauguration day from the Presidential helicopter). ANDA Bridge is a very special bridge with a background story worth to be mentioned: President Ramos who hailed from Lingayen, Pangasinan had promised the people of Anda Island to build a bridge connecting the Anda Island with Bolinao on Mainland Pangasinan, to end the isolation of Anda residents and open up a road link for the delivery of basic services to the Island’s population. The IRR of the ANDA long Bridge over the sea & related approach road project did not make it a candidate for inclusion in the National Budget for DPWH, and Sec. Edmundo Mir, (also from Pangasinan) was consulted by the President on how to reduce sharply the cost of that quite long bridge to be built over the sea. The solution found, (which halved the total bridge cost) was to use, for the bridge’s superstructure, the steel trusses which were removed from Carmen Bridge (Villasis Pangasinan) and from other Bridges which were redesigned and built, after the 1990 Earthquake with reinforced concrete superstructure. At that time Foundation Specialists. Inc had just completed the Full Development of Florida Blanca 1,000,000 Square Meters Resettlement Area for the Pinatubo Refugees, (done at direct cost only, as FS Social contribution to Pinatubo’s eruption victims) and the Design-and-Build Reconstruction of Bridges in Dagupan City, and Pangasinan Province. FS was awarded the ANDA Bridge Contract, the funding of which was not part of the National Budget. The funding of the project was coming directly from the President’s Intelligence Funds’ savings, so we were advised to pace the works in accordance to the funds by and by becoming available, and for that reason the construction took about 4 years to be completed. The first herculean task of FS was the dismantling of all the 50 meter long Steel Trusses, by removing all rivets, sandblasting all steel members, evaluate the suitability of each steel member to be used again, by submitting it to X-Ray examination and color penetration to detect micro-cracks due to fatigue, measuring the members’’ thickness’ and performing all other required field-lab tests. The first problem that came up was that sand blasting using silica sand resulted totally ineffective due to the thickness and hardness of the multi-strata metallic paint accumulated over the years: Silica sand was pulverizing on impact with the hard metallic paint. FS had previously been a contractor for the PASAR Copper Smelter Project in Isabel Leyte, and last work done there was the Copper Slag Out-Loading Pier and Facilities. The copper slag is a iron pellet not suited for metallurgical use, but a very effective substitute for silica sand to clean up heavily (metallic Paint) encrusted metals. FS immediately purchased a shipload of copper slag from PASAR and was thus able, by copper-slag-blasting, to polish, to shining live metal condition, the thousands of tons of the trusses’ structural members. All members with fatigue micro-cracks and those diminished thickness due to corrosion were eliminated, in particular most of the ‘Bottom Cord’ members were found to be severely corroded and were replaced. All in all the steel members discarded and replaced with newly purchased ones, amounted to 200 tons. While the Old Trusses were Dismantled, Copper-slag Blasted, Lab-Tested and Epoxy Painted, Foundation Specialists had erected its automatic Concrete Batching Plant, the big capacity Cement Silos, resurfaced with asphalt concrete the 6 Km access road on Bolinao side , built a Pier extending to deep water in order to provide mooring for the large deck barges while loading and unloading equipment and materials for the execution of the Bridges foundations on bored piles, and the construction, assembly, erection of the Bridge, forming and casting the Bridge’s reinforced slab and sidewalks, had precast and driven the RC Piles for the bridge abutment on Bolinao side, excavated formed and cast the Bridge’s abutment on Anda Side and by means of Bored Piling equipment mounted on several large steel deck-barges assisted by Tag-Boats, had installed temporary tubular pipe piles to establish square holes around the exact piles’ positions, driven the permanent steel casings into the seabed, thru the deep sea waters, drilled (under static Bentonite Suspension) the large diameter bored piles , installed reinforcing bar cages and poured the piles thru Tremie Pipes, formed and Cast the Pile Caps. The assembly of the trusses was done directly in place using barges and temporary support on tubular piles. The assembly of the steel components of trusses was done using high tensile steel bolts, as replacement of the original rivets. Once the installation of the steel trusses was completed, the reinforced concrete bridge slab and side walks were formed and cast, and the final painting of all steel members was done, according to specifications. The ANDA Bridge was inaugurated and opened to vehicular traffic by H.E. President Ramos, in his trademark fashion, by driving his Jeep thru it Anda Bridge was in the 1990s the second longest interisland bridge in the Philippines