Canadian heavy lift contractor, Western Mechanical, has used an Enerpac hydraulic gantry to replace bridge spans for the Humber River railroad bridge in Toronto, Canada.
Featuring a 24 m header beam, the gantry traversed the four-rail track bridge, allowing the 400-tonne bridge spans to be swapped out and replaced over the course of eight weekends.
Each span section weighed 400 tons (362.9 tonnes) and measured 100 ft (30.5 m) long, between 12-17 ft (3.7-5.2 m) wide and 9 ft (2.7 m) high.
Western Mechanical opted to use its Enerpac SBL1100 telescopic hydraulic gantry rather than a crane for the project. “The gantry is ideal for this type of heavy lift where you are handling a long, heavy structure. Using a crane would have been expensive, especially since all work on the bridge was carried out over eight weekends,” explained Rob Doucet, project manager for the heavy lift division of Western Mechanical.
The company installed its gantry track system parallel to the bridge and on either side. This approach relied on using a gantry header beam that was wider than the width of the bridge in order to avoid placing any excessive load on the partly deconstructed structure.
“We needed a header beam 24 m in length, which is far longer than we have used on past project lifts. Given the length of the header beam and load distribution, Enerpac recommended a wider header beam and modifications to the swivel interface where the header beam rested on the top of each gantry leg,” added Doucet.
Once the gantry was in place, Western Mechanical utilised the telescopic legs in order to lift the old spans clear of the bridge. The track system was then used to clear the structure, ready for the next span lift.
The Enerpac header beam and supporting side shift units moved the lifted span to awaiting railcars for onward transportation to the demolition yard.
