Green footbridge erected in Mexico

A footbridge leading to the entrance of the Zacatecas Convention Center, in northern Mexico, was designed to accommodate solar panels and eventually act as a solar heater. While the ‘green' element of the new bridge has not yet been activated, the bridge has been erected.

A Manitowoc Model 18000 crawler crane owned by crane rental company Auriga was used to lift the bridge sections into place. Contactor Construcciones y Edificaciones Gals Sa De Cv was hired by the State of Zacatecas to oversee the project.

Denise Sanchez Contreras, a lifting engineer at Auriga, said they chose the 660 US ton (600 tonne) capacity Model 18000 for this high profile job because of its power and reliability. "This is the first bridge in Mexico to have green energy potential so it is very important to the country," she said. "We needed a crane that would perform well on such an important project, so we chose the Manitowoc because it has been very reliable in the past and we always receive very good after sales support."

The crane was used to lift the two side portions of the bridge into place. Each side beam weighed 176 US tons (160 tonnes). The center portion of the bridge weighed 121 US tons (110 tonnes) and was lifted to a height of 197 feet (60 m).