Fellows bridge replacement is at hand

A stronger crane will be used today to remove the old steel bridge which proved too heavy for the crane that was tried last week.




It wasn't until the noon hour that the big Manitowoc 2250 began to be very slowly manuevered into place. Large sheets of fiberboard had to be laid down in front of it to protect the pavement.

 

12:45 PM: Town Manager Bob Forguites gets an update from a crew member estimating lift off of the old bridge to be about an hour away. Forguites, however, is skeptical about the timing and told others assembled there to watch to expect it to be more like 2 or 3 hours. In the meantime, traffic on River Street was being limited to one lane with some vehicles stopped and waiting as long as five minutes for a long line of oncoming traffic to finish passing through.

It wasn't until after 1:30 pm that the crew began attaching extensions to the big crane. The crane sections so heavy that this crane requires a crane to lift the pieces into place. It took considerably more than an hour to assemble, tighten everything up and test it. By the time the enormous crane was hoisted into the sky, it was close to 5 o'clock and rain had begun to pour. The completion of the replacement project will have to wait until Friday.

Bridge views from the factory side are from Springfield Regional Development Corporation