In an effort to accelerate the construction process and minimize impact to commuters, self-propelled modular transporters were recently used to replace two New Jersey Transit bridges in Plainfield, N.J.
“The use of Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs) as an accelerated bridge construction technique is an emerging technology in the engineering field,” said Phil Christian, project manager at HNTB, the project’s lead design firm. “When utilizing this technology, a majority of the major construction activities for a project, such as structural steel erection and existing structure demolition, take place at a remote offsite construction staging location out of the way of the public. When ready, the bridge structure is loaded onto falsework erected on the SPMT units and transported to its final location.”