''Left Coast Lifter'' is a floating derrick barge or

sheerleg A floating sheerleg (also: shearleg) is a floating water vessel with a crane built on shear legs. Unlike other types of crane vessel, it is not capable of rotating its crane independently of its hull. There is a huge variety in sheerleg capac ...

which was built to assist in the

eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge was a construction project to replace a seismically unsound portion of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Bay Bridge with a new self-anchored suspension bridge (SAS) and ...

. The barge carries a shear legs crane which is the largest barge crane ever used on the U.S. West Coast. The barge's name is taken from "

Left Coast Left Coast is a political expression that implies that the West Coast of the United States leans politically to the left. The implication is that with the exception of Alaska, the states of California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii tend to ...

", a slang phrase that plays on the fact that the U.S. West Coast is on the left of the United States when viewing a map with north oriented at the top.

Operational history

''Left Coast Lifter'' was built for the American Bridge/Fluor joint venture (ABFJV), which was the lead contractor on the self-anchored suspension eastern span replacement. The barge was built in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

by U.S. Barge, LLC and ferried to

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, where it was fitted with a shear-leg crane manufactured by Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Co. Ltd (ZPMC). The completed sheerleg was ferried back to the United States on a semi-submersible heavy-lift ship, ''Zhen Hua 22'' (IMO 8106446). The total cost was approximately . Before ''Left Coast Lifter'' was fitted out with the crane for bridge construction, it was deemed to violate the Jones Act because, since the integral crane would be built and installed in China, it could not be used to transport goods by water between U.S. ports. Therefore its first job, prior to installation of the crane, was to haul dredged materials to Long Beach.

Bay Bridge

After ''Left Coast Lifter'' arrived at the Bay Area in March 2009, it was used to place pre-fabricated

falsework Falsework consists of temporary structures used in construction to support a permanent structure until its construction is sufficiently advanced to support itself. For arches, this is specifically called centering. Falsework includes temporary ...

truss sections and the 28 box girder deck sections. Before the heavy deck sections for the Bay Bridge were lifted, ''Left Coast Lifter'' raised a sunken tugboat in August 2009, USS ''Wenonah''. The first deck section was lifted in February 2010, and the last deck section was lifted in October 2011. File:Cross Beam Lift (D 105).jpg, ''Left Coast Lifter'' raises a prefabricated steel bridge segment for the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge. File:Zeppelin-ride-020100925-211 (5028810347).jpg, alt=Left Coast Lifter and the old and new eastern spans of the Bay Bridge near Yerba Buena Island (2010). 1''Left Coast Lifter'' and the old and new eastern spans of the Bay Bridge near

Yerba Buena Island Yerba Buena Island ( Spanish: ''Isla Yerba Buena'') sits in San Francisco Bay within the borders of the City and County of San Francisco. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Fran ...

(2010).

Tappan Zee Bridge

American Bridge/Fluor solicited offers for ''Left Coast Lifter'' in 2012, after the conclusion of its work on the Bay Bridge. A consortium of companies, Tappan Zee Constructors (TZC, a joint venture of Fluor, American Bridge,

Granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and Traylor Brothers), purchased the crane barge, which gave them a competitive edge in the bidding process for the construction of the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement across the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

. Reportedly, according to the purchase agreement between TZC and ABFJV, ''Left Coast Lifter'' will be returned to ABFJV once the work on the Tappan Zee Bridge is completed. Now nicknamed ''I Lift NY'', the barge is still officially registered with the U.S. Coast Guard as ''Left Coast Lifter''. The crane departed San Francisco Bay under tow in December 2013, transited the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

in January 2014, and arrived at Jersey City at the end of January. There it was refitted with an upgraded control system before arriving at the job site in October 2014. ''Left Coast Lifter'' made its first lift on the new Tappan Zee bridge in April 2015, a steel-reinforced concrete pile cap which formed part of the bridge's foundation. The massive crane was being used for heavy lifts of large bridge sections, and placed the final steel girder for the new Rockland-bound (westbound) span in October 2016. The final lift for the eastbound span to Westchester was completed in April 2018. Between and after the assembly of the new bridge spans, ''Lifter'' was also used for heavy lifts during the dismantling of the original Tappan Zee Bridge at that location. The eastern span of the old Tappan Zee Bridge was dropped into the Hudson via controlled detonation in January 2019; although the intent was to dismantle the bridge in place, during opening celebrations for the replacement bridge in September 2018, a loud pop was heard and the original Tappan Zee bridge was closed to workers, as engineers determined it had become unstable. The

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

approved a revised plan to detonate the original bridge's supports in December 2018. "I Lift NY" was used to retrieve portions of the old bridge from the Hudson; in October 2019, the crane left the Hudson and was stored on

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

, at Caddell Dry Dock and Repair Co., Inc. It remains there as of July 2023.

Spuyten Duyvil Bridge

''Left Coast Lifter'' was also used for a heavy lift during the summer 2018 maintenance of the

Spuyten Duyvil Bridge The Spuyten Duyvil Bridge is a railroad swing bridge that spans the Spuyten Duyvil Creek between Manhattan and the Bronx, in New York City. The bridge is located at the northern tip of Manhattan where the Spuyten Duyvil Creek meets the Hudson R ...

; the crane moved the swing section of the bridge onto a barge in June to facilitate work on electrical and mechanical equipment that had been damaged during

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

. The bridge was repaired by August, and train service returned to the bridge in September 2018.

Design

The barge was designed by Glowacki Engineering (GE). It is generally a single rake 400' x 100' deck cargo barge. However it features various significant internal structural enhancements to bear the loads imposed at the deck level by the crane at the boom foot, the mast, and the back stays. GE received those loads from ZPMC and modified their design to suit. Liftech Consultants assisted ABFJV with design review for the crane, including developing the technical specifications sent to ZPMC. The project received three Excellence in Structural Engineering awards: * 2010 Award of Excellence for Special-Use Structures, from the

Structural Engineers Association of Northern California The Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC) is a structural engineering association established in 1930. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. Initially a club for structural engineers to exchange technical info ...

* 2010 Award of Merit for Special-Use Structures, from the Structural Engineers Association of California * 2011 Outstanding Project, from the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations While transporting the sheerleg, the heel pin support may be moved towards the bow of the barge in order to lower the boom and the overall profile of the barge, facilitating transport. The shear-leg crane on ''Left Coast Lifter'' has a long boom, weighing with a lift capacity. It is the largest barge crane ever used on the U.S. West Coast.

References

External links

* * * * {{cite web , author1=Rokeach, Barrie , author2=Hall, Bill , date=February–April 2010 , title=Historic Lift of Self-Anchored Suspension Span Sections for New Bay Bridge East Span , url=http://www.mtc.ca.gov/news/photos/obg_more.htm , publisher=Metropolitan Transportation Commission , access-date=12 February 2015 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213015901/http://www.mtc.ca.gov/news/photos/obg_more.htm , archive-date=13 February 2015 , url-status=dead 2009 ships Crane vessels Individual cranes (machines)