Featured in Lift Line Winter 2026
Having a roadway closed down for an extended period during a bridge project can have significant economic impact on the immediate area. Local businesses often lose money because customers can’t easily get to them. Project costs can accumulate when there’s little end in sight. Then there’s the inconvenience to motorists and increased traffic congestion. Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) is a paradigm shift that responds to these issues and more.
The Federal Highway Administration defines ABC as construction that uses innovative planning, design, materials, and construction methods in a safe and cost-effective manner to reduce onsite construction time. A recent project that included ALL Crane Rental of Tennessee, a member of the ALL Family of Companies, used ABC practices to demolish an existing bridge and construct a new one over just two weekends in July.
The I-275 bridge over Elm Street and Bernard Avenue in Knoxville, had reached the end of its service life. Bell Construction acted as general contractor/ construction manager under contract with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to complete the total bridge replacement over two 56-hour, around-the-clock weekends. Bell tabbed ALL Crane to provide heavy lift equipment to set the concrete box beams and other infrastructure needed for the new bridge.
ALL specified two Liebherr LTM 1450-8.1 all-terrain cranes, each with a 500-ton capacity. Because Accelerated Bridge Construction relies on everything happening like clockwork, ALL also had a third crane on site as a “just-incase” option if one of the active cranes went down for any reason. This backup crane was a 300-ton Liebherr LTM 1250-5.1.
The fact that a 300-ton crane was brought to the site simply as a backup says a lot about the atmosphere on an ABC job site. “When you’re doing so much so quickly, it can only be done with a surplus of planning and an overwhelming show of manpower,” said Scott McKinney, heavy highway division manager for Bell. “Everyone has a role to play and is hyper-focused. It’s like our Super Bowl, and that backup crane is our backup quarterback.”
The southbound direction of the bridge was tackled on the first weekend, northbound on the second. Bell had an estimated 100 employees on-site both weekends and ALL added another 25.
The ATs were set up on the north and south sides of the expanse, lifting 58-foot-long concrete box beams off flatbeds and setting them in a series of dual picks. Nine total beams were set each weekend, with an approximate weight of 36,500 pounds each. “Some of these dual picks were done in the dark of night,” said Mike Bartholomew, sales representative from ALL Crane Rental of Tennessee. “We were fortunate that the weather held, although we’d jokingly said if the weather isn’t bad enough for Jim Cantore to show up, we’re going,” referring to the famous meteorologist for The Weather Channel, known for his energetic, live on-the-ground reporting during inclement weather.
Each crane was configured with 174 feet of main boom and full counterweight of 295,000 pounds. A proprietary custom lifting beam from Bell was used in the rigging for both, expediting the pick process.
The two Liebherr ATs also performed multiple single picks of other materials including precast abutment endwall blocks, concrete deck panels, precast sleeper slabs, and precast approach slabs. The abutment wall blocks represented the heaviest picks of each weekend, coming in at 42,000 pounds.
While on-the-ground operations were completed in a little over 100 hours, the whirlwind of activity followed more than nine months of planning. This is the nature of Accelerated Bridge Construction, which emphasizes careful planning and meticulous execution to stick to tight timelines while maintaining quality and safety.
“It involves months of meetings, dozens of site visits, reams of documentation, and hundreds of man-hours,” said McKinney. “But the result is a quality finished product with minimal inconvenience to local residents and businesses.”
