Two Illinois crane companies, Stevenson Crane Service and Imperial Crane Services, have been engaged on separate bridge replacement projects in the city of Chicago.
Stevenson recently assisted in the removal of a major bridge on Chicago’s West Side that carried a highway over road and rail traffic. The Ogden Avenue overpass had five truss spans plus 12 additional spans with single member beams that spanned one to another.
It was dismantled by National Wrecking Company, for whom Stevenson was working. The project, which completed last month, saw Stevenson lifting curb and parapet walls on the sides of the bridge, then steel I-beams, then upper struts and then alternating floor beams on each of the three truss spans.
The truss spans were removed over several weekends and on several occasions the busy Cicero Avenue, which runs beneath, had to be closed off.
A new structure is planned as a replacement near the location of the old bridge. Imperial, meanwhile, has lifted in a new crossing over the North Branch of the Chicago River.
Three cranes were used on the project, including two Krupp ATs with 53m booms, to remove old trusses and floor beams from the existing bridge and hoist new ones onto barges docked at a site down the river. The trusses weighed up to 80t. The replacements were floated to the site and hoisted into place.
The new Kinzie Avenue and Canal Street bridge, constructed at a cost of $6.85m, is designed to reduce traffic disruption by giving extra clearance over the river traffic. The old bridge had to be swung open between 4,500 and 6,000 times a year.
