AASHTO Journal, 10 October 2014
The super crane at the Tappan Zee Bridge. Photo courtesy of the New York State Thruway Authority.
One of the world’s largest cranes, a barge-mounted behemoth originally built for bridge work in San Francisco Bay, arrived Oct. 6 alongside New York’s largest infrastructure project – replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Officially named the Left Coast Lifter, the super crane is now being dubbed “I Lift NY” and drawing raves from Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He told reporters he loved the huge piece of machinery for the amount of money it will save New York in building a Tappan Zee replacement bridge and dismantling the old structure in coming years.
Because the lifter can hoist much larger and heavier bridge sections, a consortium of companies was able to win the project with a $3.14 billion bid that was hundreds of millions of dollars lower than competitors.
At a total estimated cost of $3.9 billion, it is still the largest infrastructure project in New York history. Work began in 2013 and it has a 2018 completion date.
The crane left its California base last December, on a 6,000-mile trip that took it through the Panama Canal on the way to New York.
Officials in this video said the crane will let builders complete the 3.1-mile bridge, to replace the 1955 structure that now carries 138,000 vehicles a day, on time and on budget.
