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Lifiting Gear Hire Corp. has used its winches and come-a-longs to help erect the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. |
August 28, 2006 • Washington state commuters will find relief on the road beginning in the summer of 2007, thanks to the bridge-building efforts of Tacoma Narrows Constructors and the tools of Lifting Gear Hire Corporation. Tacoma Narrows Constructors has been using Lifting Gear Hire Corporation's electric winches and come-a-longs to erect a new suspension bridge, which is being built parallel to and south of the existing 1950's Narrows Bridge on State Route 16. The new bridge will help alleviate congestion, improve driver conformability and increase safety for drivers as they travel along the State Route 16 corridor. The new bridge will help alleviate congestion, improve driver conformability and increase safety for drivers as they travel along the State Route 16 corridor. Currently, 85,000 • 90,000 vehicles use the corridor on a daily basis, but the bridge is only designed to handle approximately 60,000 per day. Officials estimate that the use of the freeway will increase to 120,000 vehicles per day by 2020, which prompted the building of the additional bridge.
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The Tacoma Narrows Bridge runs from Tacoma to Gig Harbor, Wash. The additional bridge will help alleviate congestion. |
According to Tony Fiscelli, general manager of Lifting Gear Hire's USA Corporate Headquarters, located in Bridgeview, Ill., the electric winches are being used to inch large gantries along giant spun cables that support a 710,000 pound I-Beam on the new bridge. “A giant barge carries all of the deck sections to the place where they will be erected on the bridge,” Fiscelli explained. “Strand jacks are being used to lift the bridge deck pieces from these barges into their final location on the main cable. Our Come-a-longs are then used to inch the deck plates closer before they are settled into their final positions.”
According to Erin Hunter of Tacoma Narrows Constructors, the new bridge will give eastbound commuters two general purpose lanes, an HOV lane, and a “drop” lane by summer 2007. In summer 2008, both new and existing bridges will be open in their final form and will allow the existing bridge to handle westbound traffic on two general purpose lanes with one carpool lane, and the new bridge to handle eastbound traffic with two general purpose lanes, one HOV lane and a fourth “drop” lane, beginning at the 24th Street eastbound on-ramp in Gig Harbor and ending at the Jackson Street off-ramp in Tacoma.
The very first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened on July 1st, 1940, only to collapse in a windstorm several months later on November 7, 1940. “Galloping Gertie”, as the bridge was known, became famous as “the most dramatic failure in bridge engineering history”. A new and much safer Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened on Oct. 14, 1950 and is the fifth longest suspension bridge in the United States. 
