Jim Thorpe Memorial Bridge

High Structural Erectors erected the steel for the Jim Thorpe Memorial Bridge, carrying Route 903 over the Lehigh River in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. The PennDOT project was completed in 2017 with Allan Myers as general contractor. High Steel Structures fabricated the 2,199 tons of weathering steel plate girders.

The site allowed very little room to work. Steep slopes, the river itself, and active railroad tracks beneath the bridge limited where cranes could be placed, and historic canal locks discovered in the river during construction ruled out conventional falsework in the channel.

Working with the design consultant, HSE developed an erection plan that eliminated shoring towers altogether. Many of the girders were instead erected in pairs, braced together and lifted as a single unit, so each pair was stable the moment it was set. Six different cranes were used over the course of the work, and the heaviest picks required three cranes working simultaneously.

The result was a bridge erected without towers in the river, without disruption to the railroad below, and without compromise to the historic structures found in the channel.