Over the last two days, the Bridge Project construction team readied the massive 1.35-million-pound pier table for its lift onto the four-column falsework. This apparatus will be the very first installment of the 2,000-foot main span that will extend over the water channel. A carefully orchestrated mechanical process lifts four cables that are attached to the pier table simultanenously to ensure the structure remains balanced and does not tip. Each incremental lift is 13 inches, with the entire raising taking more than 10 hours. Watching the lift in real time, it is quite challenging to actually spot the upward movement, because it happens so slowly.
This brief timelapse video captures a portion of the 10-hour lift that occurred over April 26 and 27. This specific segment took place on Friday morning through the afternoon.
At the point where the video finishes, the pier table still had a couple more hours of lifting to go. Ultimately, on Friday, the lift came to rest just below the light-colored steel beam in the upper center of the frame, approximately 200 feet in the air. Within the next couple of weeks, the first cables will be attached to this apparatus. Stay tuned for more updates as the cables are placed and the cranes are lifted onto both sides of the pier table to begin road-deck construction.
