Two 100-year-old rail bridges needed to be removed in California. The first was 164 feet long and weighed 520,000 pounds. The second was 200 feet long with a weight of 840,000 pounds. The work would be performed next to live railroad tracks.
Barnhart developed a system using eight 100-ton jacks, a 16” slide track and 500-ton slide system to move the bridges. The team was challenged to maximize the unbraced length of the 16” slide beams to ensure safe loading.
A temporary bridge had been built next to the old bridges, and double-wide SPMT trailers were positioned on it. The old bridges were slid from their foundations and loaded onto the trailers.
The bridges were then driven to a laydown yard and offloaded from the trailers to stands.