Light Rail Transit Construction

Minneapolis Southwest Light Rail Transit Construction

Editor Alix Bemis

In November 2018, the Lunda/McCrossan joint venture was awarded a contract for the Minnesota Twin Cities Southwest LRT Expansion Project.  The light rail service will connect Minneapolis to the towns of St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Edina, and Eden Prairie. The contract is expected to create 7,500 construction jobs, totaling $350 million in payroll to be infused into the state's economy.

Every segment of the SWLRT project involves pile driving activities of one kind or another. These piles are used to support the foundations of bridges, track, and other structures. Sheet piling is used to support excavation work, build cofferdams, abutments, walls, and other construction elements. If you laid all the piles being used on this project end to end, they would stretch from the Twin Cities to Duluth, MN. Once the foundations of structures are in place, the region's new LRT line will start to take shape.

ICE® began supplying a variety of pile driving equipment to Lunda/McCrossan for the SWLRT project in June 2019. Pictured here, the Lunda/McCrossan construction crews are using and ICE® 18ZR Zero Resonance Pile  Driver rental to drive H-beams for retaining wall supports in areas with buildings that are sensitive to low-frequency vibrations. The variable moment, aka zero resonance, pile hammers enable zero eccentric moment at start-up and shut-down to eliminate disturbances to the soil, nearby structures, and the crane. Lunda has chosen to complete a large majority of the required pile driving for this project with a wide a variety of ICE® Pile Driving equipment. They own two ICE® 50B Vibratory Pile Hammers, one of which one has a full set of bias weights and an ICE® 28D Vibratory Pile Hammer that they have been using on these construction sites. They have also rented several ICE® Hydraulic Impact Pile Hammers which include the IP-3 and IP-5 to drive 16" pipe pile in certain areas where they were not allowed to use diesel hammers. The IP-5 was also used to drive PZC-18 sheets to proper grade in areas where driving was too difficult for the 50B Vibratory Pile Hammer.

Anticipated to be completed in 2023, the light rail project will span a 14.5-mile route and encompasses 16 stations, 29 new bridges, 7 bridge alterations, 8 tunnels, 15 at-grade crossings, 182,000 feet of track and more than 100 retaining walls.

Media Contact-
Pollyanna Cunningham, MA, MBA
Director Marketing, Brand and Media Relations
ICE® - International Construction Equipment, Inc
Office - 704-821-8200
Email - marketing@iceusa.com

SWLRT PROJECT INFO

 

Posted in Hydraulic Impact Hammers, Vibratory Pile Hammers. Tagged as Hydraulic Impact Hammers, Light Rail, Rail work, Railroad, Variable Moment Hammer, Vibratory Pile Hammer, Zero-Resonance Hammer.

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