At the same time, Mike Femoyer commenced to rotate the crane's carbody 90° counterclockwise and continued to hoist its lengthy ponderous load a total of 35 feet in the air. It was an almost surreal sight as it relentlessly creaked forward in the Stygian darkness, pierced only by the glare of four high-powered portable light stands. Almost no one watching the event dared to take a breath.

In the end, the first of five 102,000-pound girders was slowly lowered into position with the five-part line from the crane's 160' long straight boom. It was set on the awaiting anchor bolts and the neoprene bearing pads atop the twin new concrete bridge abutments. In its final position, the Link-Belt crane's boom was at a 78° angle at a 35' radius.

The economics were simple, why use two when one will do? The easy answer to hanging a very long flexible highway bridge beam appeared to be to put a crane on each end of the girder and swing it into position. But that's not as simple and as cost efficient as it might appear.

There would be the cooperation, coordination and communication factors of several contractors and two very large cranes working together. Often easier said than done, especially when you are talking in terms of half an inch or less for the final movement onto the anchor bolts. Then there is the cost. Why double the expense? After all, the bottom line is profit and that is not a four-letter word in today's economic conditions.

When Hal Jones Contractor, Inc., a Jacksonville, FL. based construction company, encountered the extremely challenging steel erection project, they had been there before. They immediately brought in their Link-Belt LS-248H II  to solve the situation. The company had a $10 million contract to build a series of ten new bridges, two each at five separate locations, for a highway bypass in their hometown. They had to hang some very long structural steel beams, do it quickly and do it right the first time!

Jones was working as the prime subcontractor to Milestone-Carlo, the general contractor on a $26 million, 2.6-mile long section of Rte 9A (future I-295) around the state's fourth largest city (in population). Three locations call for prestressed concrete beams and two locations call for steel beam structures. The five fabricated girders for the Beach Boulevard Bridge were so long that they arrived on-site from the fabricator, Carolina Steel Corporation, in three pieces each. They had to be bolted together on the project. No problem, this was a daylight assembly job, done in the wide median (two inside lanes blocked for the construction), of one of Jacksonville's most heavily traveled thoroughfares.

Problems were encountered, however, for the erection of the beams. Beach Boulevard has an ADT of between 25,000 and 30,000 vehicles every 24 hours. These peak twice a day during the morning and evening weekday rush hours. On the weekend, there is a heavy flow Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday and again Sunday night as summer tourism traffic flows to and from Jacksonville Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.

FDOT elected to have the steel erected at night, during the start of the work week. A traffic detour, manned by off duty Duval County sheriff's deputies, would be set up between the hours of 10 PM and 6AM. The highway section would close down and the steel hung.

Hal Jones, Contractor, Inc, a Link-Belt crane owner since its inception, is a marine contractor and bridge builder. They work primarily in Florida and throughout the Southeast United States. The company was formed late in the last decade of the 20th century. Six men, working for another firm at the time, all agreed that, if they were ever to strike out on their own, that time had come.

Hal Jones, Jr. who became and remains as president of the new company, headed the group. The men remain the management nucleus of the firm today.

Hal Jones, III (Tinker) is a vice president and project manager of the Jacksonville Bridge project. They began work on it in 2002 and estimate its completion in 2004.

FDOT brought in Morales, Shumer & Mock, Inc, an outside design and engineering firm because of Project 72002-3535's complexity. They also retained the Parsons Transportation Group and Jones-Edmunds and Associates Construction and Engineering Services to perform the construction engineering inspection. Project Manager Tom Woods was their on-site representative. The state, however, was not alone in their thinking. Jones brought a consultant in to assist with its erection plans on the Beach Boulevard Bridge. The reason? Safety of its men and the public is paramount at Hal Jones Contractor, Inc.

The bridge builder brought in a Link-Belt RTC-8060 to hold the first beam in place while the LS-248H repeatedly went back and brought forward the remaining four girders. The 60-ton capacity crane was also used to position the structural connectors between the girders.

"The 200 ton capacity Link-Belt LS-248H Series II has been a very reliable crane for us. It works well in the rain as shown by the three days of intermittent showers that we have endured on this project. It is self erecting and dismantling without the need of a second support crane," said Hal Jones III.

"The 200-ton capacity crane is very maneuverable and gets around smoothly for a big rig. Since we purchased it new, we have driven piling, placed concrete and erected and stripped form work with it. We have used it on demolition jobs and now for erection of 212' long steel bridge girders. It's been a good rig for us without any unanticipated downtime. Of course, we invest a considerable amount of time and money on preventive maintenance and routine service, too. But that's what it takes to maintain any machine today," concluded the company project manager and vice president.