There are typically a lot of reasons to lost faith in the human race on a near daily basis now. Celebrities doing dumb thing, non-celebrities doing dumb things to become celebrities, and the other tales of woe that we’re regaled with make us think that we’re pretty much headed into some sort of intelligence cesspool. Let this time-lapse video of a bridge being replaced in Connecticut last year serve as proof that we human being still have some awesome tricks up our sleeve. See, the thing about bridges these days is that lots of them are falling to pieces and in need of repair. The bad thing is that lots of these bridges are part of the biggest highways in the country. Route 84 in Connecticut is one of the busiest highways in New England and when one of its spans was in critical need for replacement, the crew you see below handled the job.
Not surprisingly, the element of this process that most enthralled us was the incredible skill, speed, and dexterity of the excavator operators during the demolition phase. Equipment operators are held in high esteem around the BangShift offices because frankly anyone can sit in a machine and mess with the buttons, pull the handles, and make some stuff happen but it is the operator who can do stuff like you will see in this video. The way that the big hammers and other demolition tools are used to take down the old bridge and the methods used (even in their accelerated state) pretty much speak for themselves with regard to the quality of the people running the big tracked beasts.
One thing we are not clear on is what actually slides the new bridge section into place. Is it pushed by something? Drawn over by cables? Levitated and moved by David Copperfield himself? Did we miss it? If you know, tell us in the comments section. This is cool problem solving on a grand and very BangShifty scale. It ain’t burning rubber but it sure qualifies as neat in our book!
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A TIME LAPSE VIDEO THAT SHOWS HOW A HIGHAY BRIDGE CAN BE REPLACED IN A WEEKEND WITH SKILLED EQUIPMENT OPERATORS AND PLENTY OF HUSTLE –
Neat , about 5 minutes from my house. They did this last summer I think.
Hydraulics
Nice! Almost like the Marines Motto – “When it absolutely positively has to be destroyed overnight”
Every crystal meth cooker within a 20 mile radius was kept busy in that one night. It is said that the fumes of their labours were visible from space. But the best thing was saved to last as a crazed local warlock off his nut on various potions including used crankcase oil laced with nitromethane and human blood levitated the new bridge section to a soundtrack of reversed and slowed down Led Zeppelin songs….