Mammoet lifts New York’s Portal Bridge replacement into position

Dutch heavy carry specialist Mammoet has accomplished a difficult operation to exchange a century-old rail bridge over the Hackensack River within the New York metropolitan space.

The corporate labored with contractors Skanska, Indiana-based Traylor, and native firm Carver Marine to get three giant sections of the brand new Portal North Bridge down the river and lifted into place.

The bridge connecting Newark, New Jersey, to New York Metropolis had turn out to be a infamous bottleneck owing to its decaying swing mechanism, which steadily malfunctioned and lowered pace to 60mph.

The road it’s on is reckoned to be the busiest within the Western Hemisphere, with a practice crossing each two minutes, carrying as much as 200,000 passengers a day.

Mammoet transported three 120m-long sections from the meeting web site on the Port of Coeymans to a location the place they might be loaded onto a barge for transit down the Hudson River.

Mammoet mentioned every part was loaded onto a mid-river stage earlier than being transferred onto one other barge ready with Mammoet’s Mega Jack system.

As soon as on this, groups jacked every of the bridge sections to a top the place they might be positioned utilizing tugboats and winches earlier than being lowered onto their assist columns.

The 2 facet sections needed to bear the extra step of being slid into place utilizing the corporate’s slide observe methods.

The brand new bridge will likely be 15m excessive, which does away with the necessity for a mechanical ingredient to accommodate delivery. The span it replaces was solely 7m above the Hackensack at excessive tide.

“The bridge part’s relocation and profitable loading onto the barge demanded cautious planning and shut coordination with Skanska and Carver, and we’re proud to report a seamless operation,” mentioned Mammoet mission supervisor Sidney King.

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