Castleton Bridge, Castleton-on-Hudson, NY USA

The busy four-lane Berkshire Spur of the New York State Thruway crosses the mile-long Castleton Bridge at Castleton-on-Hudson, New York. The bridge’s 42 piers reach heights of up to 130 feet, and the four long central spans of the bridge utilize cantilevered truss construction. Built in the late 1950’s, extensive repairs to its substructure were required, over both land and water. GBL provided multiple high-capacity modular truss frame Workstations, or “dance floors”, which were suspended from the bridge’s deck structure. These platforms were readily relocatable from pier to pier, and the structurally modular design allowed for not only very long spans between platform supports, but cantilevered extensions as well. This type of platform structure allowed work surface to be placed only where needed, thereby reducing overall weight, and made separate task-specific areas possible, improving workflow and organization on the platform. Designing for the addition of cantilevered platform areas to support portable toilets was a breeze, and is an example of the efficiency and inherent flexibility provided by this equipment type. Likewise, small powered Work Platform “dinghies” allowed for quick access on and off the main Workstation platforms, eliminating the need to lower the main work surface to grade.