Building bridges using the balanced lift method

This article explains the process of developing a new method, called the balanced lift method, for constructing bridges based on an alternative to the bridge construction techniques used nowadays. The most common methods of building bridges are those using falsework or the cantilever method, but a rather uncommon method, the lowering of arches is seen as the origin of the balanced lift method. The idea was to create a method that would allow a bridge to be built in a very fast manner without the need for falsework, using prefabricated elements and assembling all parts together in a position - in this case vertically - that would simplify the construction process. In order to reach the final state of the bridge, the parts assembled vertically are rotated into their final horizontal position. This article contains descriptions of the development of the method, a large-scale test and two bridges already designed using the balanced lift method.