Skip to main content

I Lift NY crane places first girder on New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge

One of the world’s largest cranes has placed the first steel girder assembly for the approach span of the new NY Bridge, often called the Tappen Zee Bridge in New York. The barge-mounted I Lift NY super crane with its nearly 100m boom slowly picked up the 125m unit from its delivery barge and gently lowered it onto concrete pedestals in the Hudson River, near the Rockland County side of the bridge. The super crane will install even larger sections of the new bridge, some of which weigh around 907tonne
June 25, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
One of the world’s largest cranes has placed the first steel girder assembly for the approach span of the new NY Bridge, often called the Tappen Zee Bridge in New York.

The barge-mounted I Lift NY super crane with its nearly 100m boom slowly picked up the 125m unit from its delivery barge and gently lowered it onto concrete pedestals in the Hudson River, near the Rockland County side of the bridge.

The super crane will install even larger sections of the new bridge, some of which weigh around 907tonnes, in the coming weeks, according to a statement on the official website of the Tappen Zee Bridge. I Lift NY will also help dismantle the existing 60-year-old structure that was designed to carry up to 100,000 vehicles daily but is now handling about 138,000.

The super crane arrived in the Port of New York and New Jersey in January 2014 after a journey of just under 10,000km from San Francisco Bay, including a tight passage through the Panama Canal in Central America. I Lift NY underwent modifications at a private facility before being moved to the New NY Bridge project site.

The crane is owned by TZC - Tappan Zee Constructors - and is officially registered with the US Coast Guard as the Left Coast Lifter.

The first span of the new twin-span bridge is scheduled to open in 2016 with full opening planned for 2018. The new bridge is designed to last 100 years without major structural maintenance, according to the official bridge website.

It will have eight traffic lanes, four breakdown/emergency lanes, as well as a dedicated commuter bus lane from the day it opens. Designed and constructed to be mass-transit-ready, the new crossing will be able to accommodate bus rapid transit, light rail or commuter rail in the future. The bridge will also include a bike and pedestrian path.

The New NY Bridge project is design-build contract worth $3.9 billion and won by consortium Tappan Zee Constructors. Companies include 6343 Fluor, 1021 American Bridge, Granite, and 1014 Traylor Bros., along with key design firms 2418 HDR, 4121 Buckland & Taylor, URS and GZA.

TZC is working closely on the project with a team of employees from the New York State Thruway Authority and the State Department of Transportation.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • $303 million Lowell bridge replacement
    June 12, 2025
    Skanska is handling the $303 million Lowell bridge replacement in the US
  • New Thames River bridge crossing proposed for UK capital London
    July 2, 2014
    Plans are once more being put forward for a new bridge spanning the River Thames in East London. The proposed structure is expected to cost in the region of €750 million (£600 million) to build and has been designed by Arup and HOK. The campaign for the new bridge is being led by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), which says that there is a desperate need for an additional crossing. The campaign group also has the support of City Airport, which lies on the north side of the Thames and would
  • More studies for the Great Istanbul Tunnel under the Bosporus
    March 11, 2019
    Work has started on a geological condition field study for a proposed 6.5km three-deck road and rail tunnel under the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey. Average daily road traffic through the Great Istanbul Tunnel is expected to be 120,000 vehicles and the rail line will move around 75,000 people daily. The tunnel, announced in 2015, will be nearly 19m in diameter and have two road levels and one rail level. It will run between Gayrettepe on the European side and Küçüksu on the Asian side. The ci
  • Winning formula for formwork
    July 19, 2012
    An unusual application of formwork took place recently in France, while formwork using one particular engineering construction kit was used for the first time in Poland. Guy Woodford reports An 80m long wild game underpass is an innovative feature of the Route Nationale 88 (RN 88) expansion in south-west France. For construction of the arched underpass tunnel, a PERI tunnel formwork carriage using VARIOKIT engineering construction kit was used. Thanks to the equipment’s easy handling, along with pre-assembl