Taller than the Statue of Liberty…travelled 6000 miles to save New York commuters…able to lift 1000 tons in a single pull…

It’s SUPER CRANE!

In 2007, when the I-35 Mississippi River Bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, it raised concerns about deteriorating infrastructure around the country. One glaring example was the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York, which was built on a shoestring budget in the early 1950’s, was not supposed to last more than 50 years, and was carrying about 4 times as much daily traffic as it was designed for. It clearly needed replacing, but how can one build a massive new bridge while minimizing the impact on 140,000 daily commuters, ensuring the ongoing security of metro New York, and not disrupting the area’s multi-billion-dollar economy?

The Tappan Zee guys went big. And they went to San Francisco. Where they found a thing called a floating super crane, registered with the U.S. Coast Guard under the name “Left Coast Lifter.” This thing is obscenely huge, with a 328-foot lifting boom that can pick up (and take down) entire bridge sections like they are tinker toys. This thing could cut months out of the new bridge’s construction timetable, and save millions of dollars in costs. But before it could be put to work, it had to be moved to the Hudson River. So it was put it on a special barge, pulled by one large tug in front and a smaller one behind, sailed down the west coast of California, squeezed through the Panama Canal (carefully), and then moved through the Caribbean and up the East Coast.

When it arrived in New York in early 2014, it was given a new name consistent with its new assignment: Governor Cuomo dubbed it the “I Lift New York” crane.

With the help of “I Lift New York,” the bridge designers have come up with an innovative way to construct the new bridge: they will build a new span north of the existing bridge, dismantle the existing structure, and then build a second, southern span, parallel to the first. The resulting structure will be two independent spans, each with four general traffic lanes, two breakdown lanes, and an emergency/bus lane, plus the potential to add a rail component in the future. It will be one of the longest cable-stayed spans in the country, and the widest bridge in the world.

The first span is scheduled to open in 2016; the project should be completed in 2018.

Today, you can see “I Lift New York” hard at work; just look to the north as you pass over the west end of the bridge. Or click on the link below to learn more about the new bridge, and the awesome power of the “I Lift New York” super crane.

http://www.newnybridge.com/