September 2012
Massive Railroad Truss Rolls Into Place
Ultimately, eight years of planning all came down to eight hours and about 700 feet — the distance traveled by a nearly 400-ft-long, 4.3-million-lb railroad truss on four self-propelled modular transporters, or SPMTs, during the last Saturday of August in Chicago. Construction workers slid a 2,350-ton blue truss bridge into place over Torrence Avenue in Hegewisch, which will soon replace one of the oldest bridges on the South Shore line.
The huge hunk of metal, fabricated on-site, is part of a mammoth public works project designed to speed access to the Ford Motor Co. plant to the north, according to John Parsons, Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District planning and marketing director.
The South Shore line benefits from the huge project, getting a new bridge to replace one that dates to the beginning of the South Shore line in the early part of the 20th century. [read more]
To see the move in action check it out here!