Will the “I Lift NY Limbo” Be The Next Dance Craze?

The I Lift NY Barge is SOO BIG that it barely fits under the current Tappan Zee Bridge. It’s a fact which the engineers at the Tappan Zee Contructors were quite aware — so before trying to move it from the south side to the north side of the TZB, they waited to get a little help from above — during a full moon.

The super crane, formerly known as the Left Coast Lifter, arrived at the Tappan Zee contruction site between Nyack and Tarrytown on the Hudson River on Monday. Tall as the Statue of Liberty the crane can lift as much as 1,900 tons — the equivalent of 12 Statue of Liberties. The 328 foot lifting arm will be used to install large sections of the new bridge.

But it’s big — in fact too big too fit under the bridge without some serious planning. Thursday’s move was timed to coincide with the lowest of low tides during a full moon — an event in some parts of the country that created “king tides” at high tide with local flooding of storm sewers. TZC Project engineers timed the move for about 5p Wed when the tide would be .4 feet below the average low water line.

Just to be on the safe side, the big barge was also weighed down with 2.5 million gallons of water to create enough clearance to pass under the Tappan Zee Bridge. According to USA Today, the center navigational light on the Tappan Zee was also raised to provide more leeway.

The super crane will be used to place the new bridge’s massive pile caps, girders and deck segments. When the current span is ready for demolition, I Lift NY will be used to remove sections as large as 1,000 tons enabling more rapid deconstruction than if the work was carried out by standard-sized cranes.

See also:

• USHarbors.com, Tide Charts for Tarrytown, NY
• Tight Squeeze: Left Coast Lifter Clears Tappan Zee Bridge, Engineering News-Record 10/9/2014
• Tappan Zee super crane does ‘limbo’ under bridge, USA Today 10/9/2014
• “I Lift NY” Arrives At The Tappan Zee Bridge, 10/6/2014