I-26 Construction in Madison County, NC |
The bridge is the highest in the state of North Carolina - 220' high, 1000' long, 6 lanes wide (3 north and 3 south). |
The hammerhead columns that supported the bridge were hollow with 18" thick concrete and reinforced with steel for support. Three cranes were needed to place each beam - one crane on each end to hold the beam in place and one crane to suspend the steel workers. |
A fleet of 12 Caterpillar 789B trucks (200 ton capacity each) were used in hauling excavated material. There are 10 in this picture. |
Each of the six tires on each truck were 12' in diameter & the trucks held 1000 gallons of fuel and were fueled twice per day. |
Each truck ran two 10 hour shifts per day. They were only shut off 4 hours per day. |
This picture shows the Caterpillar 5230. At the operator platform it is 3 stories high, or approximately 30 feet. The 5230 is the largest excavator Caterpillar makes. |
This is a side view of the 5230. The bite/scoop contains 26 cubic yards of earth and rock. It takes 3-4 scoops to fill each 200 ton 789B truck. |
Bill Maddox (of MFHM), over 6' tall, cannot touch the top of the track on the 5230. Each machine costs about $2.5 million. |
This is a front view of the bucket with MFHM personnel from left to right: Larry Ball, Bill Maddox, Joe Schwartz, Bob Delwiche, A. B. Wexler, and J. D. Elmore. Note the tandem axle fuel truck on the right in the photo. |
MFHM has captured this I-26 Construction project on video. This video is available thru the Museum. Please contact us using the information provided below. |
Mountain Farm & Home Museum, Inc. 101 Brookside Camp Road Hendersonville, NC 28792 Phone: (828) 697-8846 Email: ab_wexler@yahoo.com |
Open August 2003 |
