Bridge Building Insurance

A heavy civil program is assembled from the following coverages. Which ones you need depends on whether you build new spans or rehabilitate existing ones, work over water or rail, self-perform steel and concrete, and how much of the contract you subcontract out.

• General liability with completed operations. Third-party injury and property damage from your operations, and claims arising from the finished span years after acceptance. Confirm the policy does not exclude structural steel erection, work at height, operations over water, or demolition — many contractor forms do.
• Builders risk and installation. Physical damage to the bridge while it is under construction, plus girders, precast segments, rebar, and falsework on site, in transit, and in staging yards. Extend it for flood and scour, testing, and the soft costs and delay expenses public owners charge back.
• Workers' compensation and USL&H. Medical care and lost wages for ironworkers, carpenters, operators, divers, and laborers. Crews working over or on navigable water fall under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Act rather than state coverage, and that endorsement has to be requested — it is not automatic.
• Marine liability and protection and indemnity. Barges, tugs, cranes on barges, workboats, and dive operations, along with Jones Act crew exposure and liability for striking vessels, navigation aids, or the structure itself. Standard auto and liability policies exclude watercraft outright.
• Contractors equipment and rigging. Inland marine coverage for cranes, drill rigs, pile drivers, excavators, barges, and formwork, whether owned, leased, or rented — including rigging liability for damage to the load you are lifting, which equipment policies exclude.
• Commercial auto and hauling. Trucks, lowboys, and trailers moving crews, cranes, and oversize loads to site, plus hired and non-owned coverage. Permit loads and travel through work zones drive both the frequency and the severity here.
• Contractors pollution liability. Lead paint removal from existing steel, containment failures over water, fuel and hydraulic releases, dredge spoil and sediment, and concrete washout. Environmental claims on bridge rehabilitation are common and general liability treats them as excluded.
• Railroad protective liability. Required by name whenever you work over, under, or adjacent to active track. The railroad dictates the limits and the form, and no work is permitted on their property until the policy is issued to them.
• Contractors professional liability. Design-build and alternative delivery work, where means and methods, temporary works, falsework and shoring design, or an engineering error — not workmanship — causes the loss.
• Surety bonds. Bid, performance, payment, and maintenance bonds on public work, sized to the full contract value. Bonding capacity depends on your financial statements and work in progress, so the surety relationship needs building well before the bid date.
• Excess and umbrella liability. Additional limit above general liability, auto, marine, and employers liability. State and federal contracts commonly prescribe high excess limits, and a single work-zone or collapse claim can exhaust a primary policy on its own.