The Manhattan West development by Brookfield Properties is a massive $4.5 billion skyscraper development which was built just west of Penn Station in the heart of Manhattan’s new West Side. The development consists of two commercial towers along with a third residential building built on land. The result has transformed the Hudson Yards into a vibrant, mixed-use district of retail and residential housing.
The project started with the creation of a temporary steel and wood platform to support the first phase of the project. Phase One consisted of the construction of a segmental pre-cast, post-tensioned, long-span box girder deck spanning approximately 240 feet over 14 active rail lines.
A specialized Launching Gantry and hauler/straddle carrier, unloaded, assembled, and erected by our Metropolitan Walters team, was used to install a 120,000-square-foot platform that created the foundation of the development. With the Launching Gantry in place, our team unloaded 16 pre-cast segmental concrete box girders, each weighing over 2,100 tons, spanning 240 feet.
The end result has created a bridge that spans the train tracks bordered by 31st Street, 9th Avenue, 33rd street and Dyer Avenue in New York City.
Given that the project took place over the top of live train tracks, a great deal of coordination was required to schedule construction around train schedules. Safety was key in this project as there was live traffic underneath and adjacent to the site. The sheer scale of the project and working within a confined space also made the logistics of the project challenging.
Engineers
This project was a true engineering feat. The logistical site construction and engineering pushed us to blaze new trails. We had to consider many varying factors including positioning and using alternate jacking and hoisting methods.