The first was that every lift would be made in front of an audience of local dignitaries, since this was among the first major work being done on the high-profile TKE project.
The second was that the 11 / 4-mile bridge would cross a river and a flood plain, so there were environmental considerations to accommodate.
And third, sandy soil on the east side of the South Canadian river meant massive steel bridge girders would have to be picked and placed by a single crane sitting on the river’ s west side— and that they would have to be controlled without conventional taglines.
Looking for a solution to the load-control challenge, Central Bridge President Gary Quinonez remembered seeing Vita Industrial demonstrate Vita Load Navigators at the ConExpo trade show in 2023 and 2026, so he reached out to Caleb“ Rosie” Rosenberger, Vita Industrial’ s global executive account manager, product training.
“ Even if the jobsite arrangement would have enabled using taglines, the girders were just too large for humans to control by using them,” said Quinonez.“ The Navigators were a better answer.”
Cooperative Effort In just two and a half months, Quinonez, Rosenberger, two Vita engineers, and Greg White and Reece Fuller from Northwest Crane analyzed the girder-control challenge and devised a plan to use two Vita Load Navigator 2.0 load controllers to manage rotation of the 10 girders, which measured 230 feet long, 8 feet high,
and weighed up to 426,000 pounds per lift.
“ Whenever we plan lifts that combine a Vita Load Navigator with a crane, we collaborate with the crane user or a lift planner to make
8 November 13, 2026 www. contractorshotline. com