Terex ATs build Metrorrey Line 3

Since 1991, the Monterrey Metro (generally referred as Metrorrey) has been serving over 170 million passengers annually in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. Accommodating more than 480,000 passengers each day, which significantly reduces traffic congestion, this rapid-transit rail system runs partially underground and partially elevated to keep it independent of other traffic.

To continue to alleviate the traffic situation in the city, a third Metrorrey line is under construction. When completed, Line 3 will connect the Line 2 terminus at General Zaragoza northeast to Hospital Metropolitano. Its 26 trains and 9 stations are expected to serve an additional 280,000 passengers daily. A consortium of Alstom Mexicana, Constructora Garza Ponce and Constructora Moyeda, a leading construction company in northeast Mexico that specializes in the design and construction of civil works (particularly bridge) projects, was awarded the contract by the State of Nuevo León to construct the 7.5-km long elevated metro line.

According to Arturo Moyeda Morales, CEO of Constructora Moyeda S.A. de C.V., having this project in the heart of Monterrey offered crews some unique equipment challenges. Crews needed cranes with the capacity to erect U girders, as well as with the mobility to lift at one end of the job in the morning and then move a couple of kilometers during the day to erect in different locations in the evening.

Each U girder weighed 230 tons, the heaviest precast pieces ever erected in Monterrey, and measured 37 meters in length, 1.85 meters in height and 5.2 meters wide. The girders had to be placed to heights between 15-22 meters.

“We chose to use two Terex all terrain cranes — an AC 350/6 and an AC 500-2 — because they had the capacity to lift the girders (350-t capacity and a 64-m main boom length for the AC 350/6, and 500-t capacity and a 56-m telescopic boom length for the AC 500-2),” said Moyeda, “and the cranes are roadable, needing only six flatbeds each to transport the counterweights. In addition, a crew of 12 people can set up the cranes in just three hours.

“Once a crane was moved,” continued Moyeda, “and we had the go-ahead from the transit authorities, a lift could be done in less than 30 minutes per girder. It was the right equipment for the job.”

To aid Constructora Moyeda with the project, Terex provided Moyeda and his crews with a specialized training session on the cranes before work began, as well as have provided a good working relationship and after-the-sale support to the company.

According to Metrorrey, Line 3 is due to be commissioned in August, 2015.