The two Link-Belt 248HSL crawlers both did double-duty during trestle construction. They drove piles for bridge supports and also lifted and set steel components to assemble trestle spans.
Piles were placed every 40 feet, with 250 total piles driven. “With their 200-ton capacity, the Link-Belt 248 crawlers were perfect for this job because we needed something capable of handling 50,000 pounds at a 55-foot radius,” said Willis. That is the approximate weight of the hammer needed to drive 24-inch piles.
These same cranes then picked and set prefabricated bridge sections weighing 40,000 pounds each. Each span had eight sections, and the completed bridge comprised 64 total spans. One crane started on the east side of the Red River in Bossier City, Louisiana, with the other on the west side in Shreveport. Both were configured with 205 feet of main boom.
The trestle bridge construction employed the end-on construction process. The crane is set up atop the previously completed span as it constructs the next span in the sequence. From a distance, it looks like a crane sitting at the very edge of an incomplete bridge. “We start at the edge of the embankment and build the first span, walk the crane out on it, and keep working over the water,” said Willis.
The new four-lane Jimmie Davis Bridge, a $360 million project, is expected to be open to traffic in 2028.
