Mammoet removes bridge in Florida

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The 1,082t (1,193USt) bridge was initially set for demolition following a two-stage plan. The first stage was to demolish the south side of the bridge in place, then wait a few months to demolish the north side of the bridge, also in place, with each stage taking approximately 15 days.

Mammoet’s team suggested an alternative method, which was faster and avoided the risk of crews working over flowing traffic. The team proposed to remove the entire bridge in one night by using the Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) method.

Using six trains of eight-line SPMTs equipped with 250-ton jacks, the bridge was lifted from its abutments, travelled southbound along I-95, and finally staged on an offramp to later be demolished.

Through this method, lane closures were kept to a minimum and normal traffic patterns could resume ahead of schedule.

Archer Western’s assistant project manager, Massimo Raksha, said: “As expected, Mammoet’s performance exceeded our expectations. On time mobilization as promised with a very aggressive schedule due to the limited time between mobilisation and execution (only six days), which was a huge challenge to prepare and assemble all of the equipment and systems.”

The bridge removal is part of the I-95 Express Lanes Phase 3C project, which will result in wider travel lanes on I-95 below the interchange with I-595 and improved efficiency of the SR 84 interchange. With the removal of the westbound lane complete, crews will now work to widen the travel lanes and then reconstruct the westbound SR84 bridge.