Ontario’s Highway 407 East project, designed to help relieve traffic congestion at the eastern edge of the greater Toronto area, began construction in 2015. The two-phase, multiyear project is expected to be complete by 2020. In Phase 1, which is scheduled for completion by the end of this calendar year, the toll highway is being extended to connect with Highway 401. As part of this phase, Highway 401 was temporarily shut down so that a new bridge could be built. The bridge, called W9, is part of Highway 412, a 6-mile north-south highway that will connect Highway 407 to Highway 401.
The new W9 bridge is being built in Oshawa, approximately 30 miles east of downtown Toronto. Canadian contractor E.S. Fox called on its longtime crane supplier, ALL Canada Cranes & Aerials (Mississauga branch), a member of the ALL Family of Companies, to assist with the lifts of the two main steel girders for the bridge. Earlier in the project, ALL had provided E.S. Fox with smaller cranes to handle infill steel, but the W9 bridge girders were to be the biggest lifts in this phase of the project. This time, ALL would provide a strong mobile crane to lift and set two preassembled 187,000-lb steel girders over a single weekend in July. During the temporary shutdown, Highway 401 would be left with only one westbound lane open; therefore, ensuring that the work was completed safely and on schedule was of critical importance to avoid interfering with the heavier weekday traffic.
For these girder lifts, ALL needed a machine that combined excellent mobility and strength in a single package. They chose one of the largest mobile all-terrain cranes out there to handle the job: a Grove GMK7550 (550 USt/450 mt), equipped with 352,000 lb of counterweight and an optional MegaWingLift heavy-lift attachment, which increases the machine’s capacity. The GMK7550 offers excellent mobility and maneuverability for jobs such as bridges and highways. It can travel at speeds up to 53 mph on roads, and the MEGATRAK independent suspension across all seven axles can be raised and lowered as needed. This kind of versatility and power is ideal for construction jobsites, as well as in power plants or refineries, where space can be tight but heavy lifting capability is needed.
The girder lifts began on a Friday night, and work was finished as scheduled the following Monday evening, all without a hitch. Having one of North America’s most well-maintained fleets, ALL’s dependability and reliability are why customers like E.S. Fox call ALL to get the job done right, safely and on time. The right lift equipment for every job, and the experience and skill to handle any lift. That is ALL.
