Construction vessels are remobilizing as spring dawns on the New NY Bridge project.
As the Lower Hudson Valley thaws out from a particularly punishing winter, the hardworking men and women of the New NY Bridge project are remobilizing on the river.
The deep freeze temporarily halted many construction activities, including most bridge foundation and pier construction, reducing the number of on-site workers to approximately 150 in February. With action resuming and intensifying during what will be a very busy 2015 construction season, more than 400 workers will return to the project by mid-April with hundreds more to be added by the peak of activity this summer. To date, more than 3,000 people have worked on the New NY Bridge project.
The reinvigorated construction will be supported by a growing armada of more than 100 floating cranes, barges, tugboats and other vessels. The impossible-to-miss I Lift NY super crane, will soon make the first of what will be hundreds of heavy lifts this year. This spring the massive machine will install a 600-ton approach span pile cap, a task that no other single crane on the job could handle.
As winter relaxes its grip, the main span pile caps will also be completed. These football-field-long concrete bases unify the strength of previously-driven steel piles to support the new bridge’s iconic open towers. This year, the team will apply the final pours of steel-reinforced concrete to the 14 foot thick caps.
The concrete used for the bridge’s pile caps and piers will be mixed and delivered by the project’s refurbished floating concrete batch plants, which underwent structural improvements over the winter. A third batch plant will be added early this summer as well. As 2015 progresses, a procession of piers will extend across the Hudson River, joining those that started to rise above the water last year.
Off-site locations also are ramping up activity as the weather improves. For example, crews at the Port of Coeymans are beginning to assemble the prefabricated steel girder sections that will be installed atop the concrete piers. These huge girder sections will be delivered by barge to the project site.
If you are interested in seeing the construction progress on-site firsthand, you can visit the Westchester viewing platform at Tarrytown’s Scenic Hudson RiverWalk Park. The Rockland viewing platform, part of Nyack’s new fishing pier currently under construction at Memorial Park, will be available this spring. The project’s day-by-day progress also can be tracked from the comfort of home, thanks to construction cameras situated at various vantage points on and around the project site.
