Street Crane and Capco Combine to Provide Cranes and Hoists for Bridge Project

A second crane from Capco Crane & Hoist Inc, of Rowley, Massachusetts has been ordered to speed the reconstruction of the 107-year-old Longfellow Bridge over the Charles River. The crane will be used in the renovation of the bridge that spans 1.5 miles and carries around 90,000 people per day.

For the initial phases of the reconstruction, Capco Crane has built a bespoke 40ft wide double girder gantry crane. This features twin 7.5t electric wire rope hoists from UK partner, Street Crane, and a cantilever to accommodate a generator set for power.

Incorporating two hoists provides better stability when handling large and ungainly loads. Due to structural limitations the hoists, whether used independently or in tandem, are limited to 6t lifts and have a load summation device to prevent the limit being exceeded.

Operations are phased to permit continuing traffic flow. Work entails in-place structural repair to the steel arches on the spans between 10 granite piers, as well as the repair or replacement of spandrels, columns, stringers, floor beams and the concrete deck. Finally, the bridge will be refitted with cast iron fascias and pedestrian railings in the original style. The four characteristic pepper-pot towers, by which the bridge is locally identified, will be re-built.

Capco Crane’s David Caputo said: “This is an unusual and challenging project, but engineering bespoke cranes for special situations is one of our specialties. We are pleased to be working with hoist supplier Street Crane from the UK, a crane maker with over 65 years of experience in the industry, offering an advanced and robust hoist that is ideally suited to this application.”

Capco Crane & Hoist specialises in bespoke cranes for industry and construction and produces bridge, gantry, jib, runway and bespoke cranes. These may be single, double or box girder construction and are individually engineered to meet client production and process needs.