A pedestrian bridge linking two wings of a hospital needed to be installed in an alley in Philadelphia. The customer first chose another company to do the project, but when that proposed approach was unworkable, they came to Barnhart for a solution.
In the first phase, Barnhart staged the two bridge sections at its yard. Due to height issues, the sections had to be transported on their sides. Each piece was lifted and rotated using 300-ton gantry legs and offloaded to a transporter.
The alley at the site was just 16' wide, so there was limited space among the equipment, bridge sections and a pedestrian walkway. A pathway for ambulance traffic to an adjacent ER also had to be left open.
The team used the 300-ton gantry legs to rotate and raise the first two bridge sections to height, which was 31' in the air. A 110-ton mobile crane lifted and set the second two sections in place. The work was performed over two consecutive weekends.
The work had to be completed between Friday night and Sunday afternoon. The team was able to optimize efficiency during the second phase to complete the project 1 ½ shifts ahead of schedule, saving the customer time and money.