Archive for the ‘I Lift NY’ Category
Five Years Ago Today: the Super Crane Arrived
Will Van Dorp, professor at Union County College in New Jersey, met the I Lift NY this very cold morning as it arrived from the West Coast at our very own Port Jersey Facility – The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – escorted by tug boats Lauren Foss and Iver Foss. after docking at a private facility in Jersey City, it will stay put until it comes north to the Tappan Zee Bridge this spring.
Excitement, cameras, and (perhaps) a sigh of relief — it’s finally here — greeted the I Lift NY‘s arrival two days ago. I’m guessing the relief part.
Nowhere among the day’s pictures did I see any like the first three snapped by waterblogger Will Van Dorp; he captured I Lift NY‘s approach on the aquatic horizon, led by tugboat Lauren Foss, adding drama to suspense. Tugboat Iver Foss followed.
A New York state of mind is also apparent in these pictures taken by photographer Phil Little with the Freedom Tower and Statue of Liberty background.

Sunlight bathed the Tappan Zee bridge shortly before the I Lift NY’s arrival at The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey./EarthCam® construction camera in Tarrytown
Correction: Two weeks ago prior to the original post I said the crane, owned by Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC (TZC) was renamed. It wasn’t. It was dubbed, nicknamed. Long ago and far away, it was christened the “Left Coast Lifter” for its work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge construction project. That was then, this is now.
I’d like to know what you think.
Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2019
Final Steel Assembly & Removing TZB Roadway
Last week (April 12), the super crane placed the final steel girder assembly on the eastbound span. Crews continue placing additional small, unattached girders near Rockland so the span will connect to land.
The I Lift NY has been installing the blue steel assemblies since June 2015. I was there and saw the massive crane lift the first blue steel assembly from the barge that brought it downriver. Very exciting!
Photos are courtesy of the New York State Thruway Authority. Above, a mobile crane removes pieces of the Tappan Zee Bridge’s roadway. As the super crane ceased work on the new bridge, it will remove sections of the TZB’s large steel truss during the coming week; they’ll be placed on barges and eventually recycled.
I’d like to know what you think.
Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2018
Simultaneously Building and Dismantling
You might be planning to take it easy this weekend; however, the super crane will be working on the eastbound span near Westchester. Nearly two-and-one-half years ago, rews installed steel girders across the Metro-North tracks. The girders will connect the Westchester abutment to that span’s land piers Saturday night to Sunday morning.
Metro-North will suspend trains from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday morning. Expect an extra 25-minute delay. For detailed MTA information, click here.
Don’t forget to move your clocks ahead one hour.
And then there’s the Tappan Zee Bridge or what remains of it per a southeastern view of its piers from Rockland. Photos courtesy of the New York State Thruway Authority.
I’d like to know what you think.
Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2018
Inside Story of how TZC built the new TZ Bridge
Four years after its first foundational steel piles were driven into the river bed, one span of the new Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge connecting Westchester and Rockland counties in New York State opened to westbound traffic this past August.
Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the twin span, cable-stayed bridge named after his father, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo drove eastbound across the new span with Sleepy Hollow resident and Bronze Star recipient Armando “Chick” Galella in a 1955 Corvette, the same model year Corvette Galella drove with Governor W. Averell Harriman as part of the Tappan Zee Bridge’s December 15, 1955, inaugural procession.
This remarkable transition reflects the tireless efforts of thousands of men and women from Tappan Zee Constructors (TZC), a consortium of some of the world’s best-known and most highly-regarded design, engineering and construction firms.
In October, and weeks ahead of schedule, the Tappan Zee Bridge was retired, and eastbound traffic moved from that bridge to the new span. This allowed the design-build team to begin dismantling the old structure — including the steel and concrete above River Road in Rockland County — and to continue work on the eastbound span, which will open in 2018.
TZC’s first task involved removing the old bridge’s landings, which occupy the same footprint as the second span’s connections to the New York State Thruway. This was accomplished by cutting and dividing sections of steel and concrete into manageable sections, then using barge-based cranes to transport the materials away from the project site.
Transportation barges will carry the materials to ancillary facilities including the Port of Coeymans in Albany County. Many concrete materials and steel trusses will be recycled. More than 130 deck panels units, each approximately 13 feet wide by 50 feet long, will also be given to nearly a dozen state and local municipalities to be repurposed for other bridges and roadways.
Upcoming key operations include lowering of the old bridge’s main span steel cage via hydraulic jacks, and the removal of piles, piers and caissons with foundational material being removed below the bottom of the river. TZC will continue to remove pieces of the old bridge throughout the year, starting from the Rockland and Westchester landings and working toward the middle of the Hudson River.
Work on the new bridge’s eastbound span will continue throughout 2017 and into 2018. Once it opens to traffic, crews will begin building the new bicycle and pedestrian path on the westbound span. Features include six overlooks (resting points), visitor parking and pavilions; and interpretive exhibits, art and signage.
The Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge features an aesthetic lighting system that accentuates the iconic features of the new bridge, specifically its 419-foot towers, stay cables and concrete piers. TZC conducted numerous lighting tests throughout the year to help confirm the aiming angles of each lighting fixture, which needed to precisely follow the rendering plan set forth by lighting designers.
The project’s Visual Quality Panel, made up of the local community and design professionals, helped TZC develop the lighting plan. TZC prepared for these systems well in advance, installing parts of the utility and systems infrastructure into the steel girder assemblies that were fabricated offsite, reducing the amount of work required over the Hudson River.
Once the steel was safely secured atop the bridge’s concrete piers, TZC electricians began splicing and extending material, tying the bridge utilities into the systems in Rockland and Westchester counties. Utility lines provide electricity for the roadway and aesthetic lighting systems, and will also power the bridge’s structural health monitors, security systems and Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Much like the bridge’s roadway lighting, the aesthetic lighting utilizes energy-efficient light emitting diodes, or LEDs. The project’s LEDs are designed with 100,000-hour lifespans, using an estimated 75 percent less energy compared to traditional lighting technology.
TZC is utilizing modular construction techniques to create large sections of the bridge’s foundations, roadway and superstructure on-land. This allows TZC to safely prepare massive segments of the bridge off-site ahead of time, with some steel sections measuring up to 410 feet in length. Its ability to install these bridge elements is aided by the I Lift NY, whose enormous 328-foot lift arm can lift up to 1,900 tons of material — the equivalent of 12 Statues of Liberty at once.
This extraordinary lifting power, which shortened construction time by months from original estimates and reduce project costs by millions of dollars, will also help dismantle the old Tappan Zee Bridge.
Other innovative equipment includes: TZC’s mobile concrete batch plants that supply the majority of the structure’s concrete directly on the river, self-climbing jump forms that rose along with construction efforts to create the iconic main span towers, protective bubble curtains used to absorb the energy produced during pile driving; and the synchronized jacks used to lower football-field-length foundations into the Hudson River.
TZC is also constructing two buildings in Tarrytown: the Thruway Authority’s new maintenance facility and a new State Police facility. The buildings will improve bridge access for State Police and Thruway personnel responsible for maintenance, operations and security and will also allow emergency crews to quickly respond to vehicle breakdowns on the new bridge.
Crews created a new maintenance dock parallel to the new bridge in South Nyack. The dock will assist the Thruway Authority and emergency vessels near the new bridge.
Intelligent Transportation Systems will improve safety and mobility on the crossing by monitoring roadway conditions and notifying Thruway Authority staff of any disruptions. Motorists will also be informed of accidents and closed lanes through overhead electronic signage, enhancements that have been shown to minimize delays, allowing the public to get the most out of its investment.
The stream of data from the bridge’s sensors will be tracked at the Thruway Authority’s command center through an advanced Structural Health Monitoring System that will measure the twin-span crossing’s structural behavior under traffic and weather conditions. Routine and preventive maintenance work will also be efficiently scheduled with this state-of-the-art system. This vital communication network will make the bridge one of the most technologically advanced crossings in the United States when it opens in 2018.
Submitted by Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC (TZC) for the December 2017 issue of Rivertown Magazine. Photos courtesy of the New York State Thruway Authority.