This project involved the relocation of four existing bascule leafs on the Intracoastal Waterway. The contractor wanted to float the bascules off their existing supports and land them on the newly constructed temporary piers.

Each 320 ton leaf had to be floated with full counterweight still in place, cantilevered 26 feet over the side of the supporting barge. The barge was only 45 feet wide, and ballasting and counterweighting calculations were performed to maintain the barge level as it picked up the weight of the bridges. This resulted in 320 tons of concrete counterweight on the deck and up to 1070 tons of water ballasting. We also analyzed the barge structure for strength and concentrated load applications.