Engineered Rigging deployed Enerpac strand jacks to lift and install precast bridge segments for the Cline Avenue Bridge over the Indiana Harbour in East Chicago, USA.
Four 63.5-tonne capacity strand jacks enabled Engineered Rigging to lift 19 precast bridge segments – measuring 3 m high, 3 m deep and 7.6-9.1 m wide – into place above the waterway, while avoiding the disruption of using a floating crane. Units weighed up to 68 tonnes.
Two beams extended from a customised cantilever segmental bridge lift platform with two strand jacks mounted on each beam. As each segment was added the platform was moved forward using a combination of Enerpac launching cylinders and low-height skidding systems.
Christopher Cox, president of Engineered Rigging, said: “Cranes are great for lifting heavy objects, but their sheer size and cost often makes them impractical for some applications.
“Enerpac strand jacks were integral to the safe and on-time completion of the project. They pack tremendous lifting capacity into a small footprint. The flexibility of the strand jack system has allowed Engineered Rigging to use this equipment on many other projects across multiple industries,” he added.
Engineered Rigging completed the installation of all 19 segments in 16 days, and the bridge was opened on December 23, 2020.
