Key, LLC of Madison, Mississippi is currently building seven bridges and an interchange as a major subcontractor of Yates Construction on a 9.8 mile stretch of State Highway 57 near Vancleave, Mississippi.
Key is using three Link-Belt cranes, two 248 HSL and one 238 HSL, to drive more than 300 prestressed concrete pilings for the project.
“We’ll drive 32 piling for each of the intermediate bridges, then 24 for the bridge abutments—all with Link-Belt cranes,” said site superintendent Jeff Jackson. “We like Link–Belts; we’ve had good service from the company. We’ve owned various Link-Belt models, and most of our bigger cranes like the 238 HSL and 248 HSL handle pile driving and steel erection.”
Jackson began with Key Constructors as a pile driving foreman 26 years ago and is currently overseeing a portion of the Highway 57 project.
The project will eventually serve as a secondary evacuation route as well as a bypass around Vancleave. State Highway 63, twelve miles to the east, is the only other north-south route for quickly moving the local population off the coast for hurricane evacuation. The new four-lane highway will go north from Interstate 10 in Jackson County and travel north to Gautier-Vancleave Road in Jackson County, Mississippi.
Reprinted from Marine Construction Magazine Issue V, 2023.
