e-mosty June 2018 American Bridges American Bridges | Page 10

Figure 7: Bridge foundations
The Hudson River is more than 40 feet deep at the
navigation channel, and subject to powerful currents.
Pile caps distribute the weight of the bridge and act as
platforms for the bridge piers and towers.
These foundation elements combine the strength of
groups of piles into base-like structures. Pile caps have
as many as 64 piles and are filled with steel-reinforced
concrete, Figure 8 below:
Figure 8: Main span pile caps construction process
Pile caps for the main span were lifted by I Lift NY
floating crane and placed on steel foundation piles.
They are 14 feet deep and filled with 12,000 cubic
yards of concrete.
← Figure 9: One of the largest approach span pile caps on
the project is carefully placed onto a group of foundation
piles by the I Lift NY super crane
↑ Figure 10: One of the main span pile caps with its first
layer of rebar installed
2/2018