The new ballpark for the Florida Marlins Major League Baseball team is currently under construction just outside of downtown Miami at the site of the old Orange Bowl.  Expected to open for the 2012 season, the design of the new stadium includes a retractable roof – a feature that, among other things, will address a history of numerous rain delays, as well as the South Florida heat and humidity. One immediate challenge to the project was how to complete the massive roof support beams quickly and cost effectively. Successfully executing this step was important in order to make way for the time-consuming seating and finishing work to follow. In total, eight segments had to be raised – the largest of which weighed 1,600 tons. The original plan called for a forest of shoring towers to support these beams as they were cast-in-place. Desiring a more efficient solution, the team worked with STRUCTURAL, a licensee of VSL to design, plan, and execute an innovative solution. 

Working with the engineering and construction team, it was decided that the support beams for the retractable roof would be constructed on the ground and lifted into place using VSL heavy lifting equipment. The proposed solution would save the considerable time and expense of erecting and removing the vast amount of shoring required for the original plan.

In total, eight massive beams were lifted into place using computer controlled, high capacity hydraulic strand jacks. After being cast on the ground, these beams, weighing as much as 1,600 tons, were lifted to heights as high as 150 feet.  Each lift incorporated eight heavy lifting strand jacks.  Four jacks were used to lift the beams into place and four were used to secure the backside of the lifting supports to anchors or the adjacent structure. The personnel onsite continuously monitored the beams’ position with the use of level sensors connected to a computer display. All hydraulic jacks and pumps were operated by a VSL technician at a centralized control console. Once lifted into their final position, the beams were spliced to the column tops with closure pours and post-tensioning tendons. For each subsequent beam, the process simply required moving the same jacking equipment to the next support column and repeating the steps to lift the next beam.