PHX Sky Train™ Construction Update

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like… a Guideway

Like an enormous jigsaw puzzle in the sky, the pieces of the guideway for PHX Sky Train™ are now coming together in such a way that the train route is increasingly more recognizable.

Up until recently, it was hard to imagine a train guideway when the only visible signs of construction were a bunch of columns sticking out of the ground. But now with gigantic pieces of the puzzle being put in place, the guideway is clearly visible.

From Aug. 20 to Aug. 21, a portion of Sky Harbor Boulevard was closed in order to allow the placing of large steel beams to span the roadway. The four steel beams are each about 125 feet in length and, altogether, weigh more than 250 tons.

This time-lapse video shows trucks transporting the enormous steel beams along 44th Street adjacent to the bridge, then crews use a crane to swing the beams into place on the supporting columns.

Those steel beams are not the only important pieces of the puzzle. Some 130 concrete box girders are also being put in place. Those girders measure between 100 feet and 65 feet in length and weigh between 45 and 70 tons. To date, 82 concrete box girders have been placed.

Every day brings us a step closer to completion of the first stage of the construction of Sky Train that will transport riders between METRO light rail at 44th Street and Washington, East Economy parking and Terminal 4, the Airport's busiest. Stage One will be up and running in the first quarter of 2013.

First posted: 8/26/2010

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