From Roman aqueducts via the Ponte Vecchio in Florence to Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge or San Francisco’s Golden Gate: bridges have, from earliest times, counted among some of the most iconic and spectacular engineering achievements of mankind – as well as the most useful.
Today’s bridge-building spans the scale from mega-projects to small intimate foot- or cycle-crossings; and the lifting machines that help build them are equally varied. Tower cranes, mobile cranes, crawler cranes, strand-jacks, and SPMTs can all play their part. A crane type that is particularly suited to many mid-range bridge tasks is the crawler; and for case studies of crawler cranes in bridge-building see the article on page 36 of this issue. Here, though, is a selection of other types of cranes used on recent projects – both large and small.
Border Crossing
Two massive 50-tonne (110,000lb) class Comansa 21LC1050 tower cranes stood as landmarks on either side of the Detroit River: one crane in Canada, the other in the United States. They were working to construct a new crossing, the Gordie Howe International Bridge, and after five years of work they have now been retired from the project.
The cranes on each side of the border were virtually identical — with one exception: the Canadian crane was painted red, while the US crane was blue. This was in homage to the national colours of each country. The colours were chosen by Bridging North America (BNA), the private-sector partner responsible for the construction of the bridge. The project is being financed through a public-private partnership between BNA and the Canadian government. Windsor- Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) is a Canadian Crown corporation that is responsible for the delivery the project.
The cranes arrived on site in 2020. Assembling them took 35 hours over three days. They were used to lift heavy materials including rebar, formwork, cable anchor boxes and each of the 216 stay cables for the two huge bridge towers.
The cranes climbed in height throughout construction to keep up with the growing bridge towers. When the bridge towers reached their full heights of 220 metres (722 feet) in 2024, the tower cranes, too, were at their final heights of 243 metres (797 feet).
The bridge project is now nearing completion. All 216 stay cables have been installed and stressed, the bridge deck is connected, and the concrete paving that will serve as the road base is complete.
A single dismantling crew took both cranes down, one at a time. In a reversal of the assembly process, the tower cranes were first self-climbed down to a reachable height and then removed in sections with the assistance of a 600-tonne crawler crane with a boom length of 165 metres (541 feet).
The Canadian tower crane was fully dismantled in May 2025. When the crew finished the project team transported components of the crawler crane on flatbeds in 41 separate trips across the new bridge itself to start work on the US side. The US tower crane was dismantled by the end of July.
New Heights
The world’s highest bridge was completed in April this year in one of the world’s most challenging environments.
The Huajiang Grand Canyon bridge in Guizhou, southwestern China, stands 625 metres above the surface of the Beipan river that flows in the gorge beneath it.
The use of a Potain MCT 385 topless tower crane was crucial to its construction.
Owned and operated by Guizhou ShengYongSheng, the crane arrived on site in late 2023, where it was configured with the full 75m jib on behalf of main contractors Guizhou Bridge Construction Group. As the core lifting equipment for the project, the crane handled loads of up to 20 tonnes for critical tasks such as pylon construction and steel truss girder installation over a main span of 1,420m and a total length of 2,890m.
On the sheer cliffs and inhospitable terrain of the local landscape the MCT 385 worked in tandem with the world’s longest-span cable crane system.
Together they covered areas unreachable by conventional fixed cranes and significantly accelerated construction while providing stability and efficiency in the extreme conditions.
“This canyon was once a construction ‘no-go zone’,” said Ling Qian, marketing manager – China, for Manitowoc, “but this project shows China’s ongoing commitment to ambitious infrastructure development and highlights the role global, high-end equipment such as the MCT 385 can play in delivering these mega-projects. At Potain we want to turn projects that were previously impossible into reality.”
ShengYongSheng’s MCT 385 has enjoyed a decade of use on other projects in the region, including the Guiyang Twin Towers Project and the Xifeng Industrial Standardized Plant Project.
Crane Pontoon Key to Canal Work
In the UK the Droitwich Canals flow through the spa town of the same name. They are thickly lined with trees and hedges and provide a green haven for local walkers. The canals have also become a thriving cruising ring for boaters looking to navigate the picturesque Mid-Worcestershire Ring.
Two commonly used wooden footbridges span the waterway at King George Playing Fields and Little Hill Court; each is 18 metres long. In January 2024, it was decided both bridges would be removed and replaced; contractor Griffiths was chosen to carry out the project.
Each bridge weighed seven tonnes and was hard to dismantle conventionally. In addition, there was no land access for the large lifting equipment needed.
Thomas Roberts, site manager at Griffiths, said: “From a civil engineering perspective, dismantling and replacing bridges is undoubtedly difficult and requires a lot of planning. When the bridge is over a body of water, the difficulty factor multiplies further: the bridges needed to be stripped down, replaced and lifted into place on the canal itself, so we knew specialist equipment and knowledge would be needed to carry this out.”
Faced with this challenge Griffiths engaged the services of marine engineering specialist The Rothen Group. The group was able to provide a 26ft (8 metre) crane pontoon, allowing works to be carried out on the water by construction machinery.
Capable of lifting two tonnes at 12m, the platform could also be adapted to narrow and wide beam waterways, suiting the awkward-to-access circumstances of each bridge’s location.
Crucially, the pontoon has jack legs, creating a stable working platform while the projects were carried out.
“Dismantling the old bridges proved difficult from a health-and-safety perspective, as it quickly became apparent that the old wood had rotted,” said Group founder Ian Rothen. “We were able to meet this challenge using scaffold towers mounted on the pontoon and extra harnesses off the crane to carry out the first stage of the works.”
All disassembled and discarded materials from the bridges were loaded onto a 70-foot historic carrying boat to be disposed of off-site. This hopper was then crucial to the next part of the project, carrying the new bridges to where they would be lifted and fixed in position via the pontoon-based crane. New ramps were also put in place as part of these works, followed by the installation of handrails – also from the pontoon. In total, the project took 11 weeks to complete, with the bridge installations themselves taking just two days each despite their scale.
“The sheer size of these bridges made them some of the biggest we had ever erected,” said Ian Rothen. “Our largest boat is 21 metres, so considering the bridges were 18 metres long, the whole project was very tight. However, we drew on our years of experience to ensure the complex project was completed without a hitch.”
Skidding Bridges for Hs2 Project
In the UK engineers have moved a 1,631 tonne steel bridge into place over a Birmingham ring road four days ahead of schedule as part of the HS2 project – Britain’s new high-speed railway being built between London and the West Midlands.
The steel bridge structure is 112m long and weighs 1631 tonnes; placing it is a stage in building a one-mile stretch of five connected viaducts bringing highspeed trains into Birmingham Curzon Street Station.
The operation was successfully delivered by HS2’s main works contractor in the West Midlands, Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) and its bridge move contractor Mammoet.
To minimise disruption the operation took place during night-time road closures; it was moved between 18 and 24 metres every night, over four nights, using a special skidding system.
Rather than building the bridge in situ, disruption to road users was reduced by constructing the steel span on land next to Digbeth Canal over the last two years. On 15 August 2025, heavy lifting engineering expert Mammoet rotated the bridge 90 degrees using two self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs).
Over the following four nights, a skidding system with a jacking push/ pull mechanism was used alongside the SPMTs to move the structure into place across the Lawley Middleway ring road. This combination of techniques is rarely used and was a first for BBV on the HS2 project.
Also on the HS2 project, at almost the same time, engineers were sliding a 1,300-tonne viaduct deck into position near the Northamptonshire village of Thorpe Mandeville.
The steel and concrete deck of the Lower Thorpe viaduct – which stretches for 220m – was assembled to one side before being slid into position in just three days, reaching the north abutment on Friday 20th June.
During the slide pads covered in PTFE – a Teflon-like material usually found on the surface of a non-stick frying pan – were used to minimise friction between the deck and the temporary steel bearings on top of each of the five concrete piers.
It is the last of five viaducts being built using this technique by HS2’s main works contractor responsible for the central section of the new railway, EKFB – a team made up of Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial Construction and BAM Nuttall – working with specialists at Eiffage Metal.
With the steelwork now in position, engineers can begin the next stage of the operation, lowering the deck 60cm onto the permanent bearings before work on the concrete deck and parapets can begin.
EKFB is delivering 15 major viaducts for HS2 between the Chilterns and South Warwickshire. Lower Thorpe is the last of five that are being slid into position.
A video of the viaduct installation can be seen here: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=iEV1ARbDKZc
New Jack City: On Track for Success
The Portal Bridge is a key rail link between Newark, New Jersey, and New York City. The current bridge is centuries old and is a notorious bottleneck that has long caused delays for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains due to its outdated swing mechanism and frequent malfunctions.
The Portal North Bridge project is an infrastructure development designed to replace it with a new three-section bridge. The new bridge, a fixed-span structure, will eliminate several mass transit problems, improving reliability and efficiency along one of the busiest rail corridors in the country. It will be 15 metres (~50 ft.) above the water, allowing both land and water traffic to traverse the area simultaneously.
A significant milestone on the project was reached when Mammoet successfully executed the transport of all three bridge sections for clients Skanska-Traylor JV and Carver Marine.
They were moved from the assembly site at Port of Coeymans to the roll-on location, where they were then loaded onto a barge for further transit down the Hudson River.
The sections each measure over 120 metres. Each was carefully transloaded onto a temporary mid-river staging called the transfer bent, before loading onto another barge prepared with Mammoet’s Mega Jack system. Once on the Mega Jack, teams jacked each of the bridge sections to a height of 14-16 cassettes.
The sections were then positioned using tugboats and winches before being lowered into place onto their columns. Both the East and West bridge sections had the added step of being slid into place using Mammoet’s slide track systems.
Use of the Mega Jack allowed for greater speed in raising the bridge sections to the necessary height and the skid systems allowed for precise placement of the bridge sections into final position. The quick operation of the Mega Jack allowed for better management of setting windows due to the large tidal differences.
Sidney King, Mammoet’s project manager for the Portal North Bridge project, said “The bridge section’s relocation and successful loading onto the barge demanded careful planning and close coordination with Skanska and Carver, and we’re proud to report a seamless operation.”
Pedal Power: Bike Bridge Over Road
Heavy lift and transport specialist Sarens recently placed a 240-tonne cycling and pedestrian bridge over a busy ring road in Hasselt, Belgium.
The bridge was first transported from its site of manufacture to a nearby quay using two sets of SPMTs fitted with turntables. There, it was transferred onto a barge with the help of a Liebherr LTM 1650-8.1 eight-axle mobile crane in the 700t class, and Sarens’ Demag AC700, which is also a 700t crane, but here it was configured as a 500-tonne crane due to scheduling constraints.
Once the bridge arrived in Hasselt by water the Sarens team quickly mobilised. Cranes were set up along the quay and SPMTs prepared for the next stage. A three-crane triple lift was used to unload the bridge from the barge. A 500-tonne class Liebherr LTM 1500- 8.1 all terrain and two Demag AC700 all terrains were used. The LTM and one of the AC700s first lifted one side of the bridge together, using a triangle to bring it closer. When the AC700 was able to bear the 145-tonne load alone, the 500-tonne crane was unhooked and the bridge was slewed between the two remaining cranes. At the opposite end of the structure the second AC700 helped guide the bridge into final position onto the SPMTs.
The final move took place during the early hours of a Sunday morning. At 2am Sarens rolled the cranes, trucks, and bridge to position. At sunrise it lifted the bridge above the ring road. By midday, the cranes had been demobilised and the bridge was securely positioned — marking the successful completion of a highly coordinated, high-stakes operation.
