All language subtitles for Building Giants Series 4 Part 5 The Invincible Bridge 1080p

Narrator: In los angeles...

Yo!

Narrator: ...This team
of elite engineers

Is racing to build an epic
earthquake-proof bridge.

It just is
amazing responsibility.

Narrator: Costing nearly half
a billion dollars,

The new sixth street viaduct

Is the biggest bridge project
l.A. Has ever seen.

I've worked 36 years
building bridges,

I've never built
anything like this.

Narrator: To construct this
120,000-ton colossus,

The team must break new ground
in bridge building...

We have created new material
that has never existed before.

Narrator:
...Push their pioneering designs

To the limit...

If we don't meet
the requirements,

A lot of people
are gonna have to explain

Why our calculations
didn't come up correctly.

Narrator:
...And work down to the wire.

They are not gonna have months.

We are gonna only have hours.

Narrator: This mega bridge
brings in a league

Of ambitious
new engineering wonders

That are bigger, faster,
taller, and more advanced

Than anything
ever constructed before.

This is the inside story
of the extraordinary challenge

Of building these giants.

♪

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

♪

Los angeles,

The home of hollywood.

The city itself has been
featured on the silver screen

More times than any movie star.

One of its most iconic features

Is the historic
sixth street viaduct.

It's been in any number
of movies and adventure films

And post apocalyptic
disaster stories.

♪

Narrator: But today,
one of the city's

Most famous sites
is on the brink of collapse.

What you see here
is a sample of concrete

That came out
of sixth street viaduct.

Narrator: The bridge's concrete
is starting to fall apart.

There's a chemical reaction
in the concrete

That is otherwise known
as concrete cancer

And what happens is a gel

Is created within the concrete
that expands over time

And when it expands
it causes the concrete

To crack apart and break.

Narrator: Specialists have tried
to repair the cracks

But this it the end
of the road.

We had hired international
experts to come in and look,

Is there anyway
to save this bridge?

And they all said
the same thing -- no.

Narrator: City engineers
have no option

But to divert the traffic
and demolish this bridge.

But they're planning a sequel.

What's exciting
about the new bridge

That we're gonna be building

Is that it's an opportunity
to improve.

Narrator: The city has
challenged los angeles architect

Michael maltzan
with designing a new viaduct

That echoes the old one
but looks to the future.

The competition brief was
to make a new structure

That had the same iconic
presence in the city

As the bridge
that came before it.

Narrator: This is
the spectacular bridge

They plan to build.

At over 3,000 feet long,

The new sixth street bridge

Will follow the same route
as the old structure.

Soaring over the busy
101 highway,

City streets, railroads,

And the famous l.A. River.

Nicknamed
"the ribbon of light"

The new bridge will feature
10 pairs of huge arches

Running along its entire length.

Giant steel hanger cables
will suspend the road deck

From the arches.

Each cable is strong enough to
hold more than a million pounds.

♪

Below, each support column

Will sit
on huge sliding bearings.

These columns are designed
to withstand a once

In a thousand year
earthquake.

Costing nearly half a billion
dollars,

This pioneering new structure

Will ensure
the sixth street bridge

Remains a los angeles icon

For the 21st century
and beyond.

♪

Building this enormous bridge

Would be a difficult project
anywhere,

But the crowded
inner city location

Will make this construction
particularly difficult

For principle engineer
julie allen and her team.

Many bridges are constructed
over a single obstacle,

A river or a roadway.

We're crossing over a six lane
freeway, four city streets,

18 railroad tracks

That are operated
by five different agencies,

Along with
the los angeles river,

Which can vary from a trickle
to a raging,

All the way up
to the banks flow of water.

Narrator:
Crossing streets and railroads

Is not the only challenge.

The entire city is built
in an earthquake zone.

The whole west coast is known
for major seismic events,

California in particular.

It could be any time
that the next big one'll hit.

Narrator: This is their plan.

♪

To build this monumental
new bridge,

The team must first tear down

The original viaduct
piece by piece.

Next, they'll build up
23 supporting columns

And position the special
sliding bearings on top

To protect the structure
during quakes.

On top of the bearings,

Engineers will construct huge
y-shaped supports

From an intricate mesh
of steel reinforcing bars.

♪

And a special high
strength concrete.

♪

Carpentry teams will then
custom build wooden molds...

♪

...Section by section

To form each
of the complex curved shapes

That will give the bridge
its sweeping lines.

When the concrete beams
and arches are built,

The team will hang
the 388 hanger cables

That hold up the road deck.

When complete, this elegant
design will be tough enough

To carry 100,000 cars a week.

The first challenge is to remove
the existing viaduct.

But the quickest method
is off the table.

You can't come in with a big
dynamite like we see in cartoons

And just destroy it
or implode it.

You've got to deconstruct it.

Allen: Demolition is scheduled
to be for about a year.

It's time consuming
and meticulous.

It's got a lot of concrete,
a lot of steel.

Narrator: The first 200 feet
of the old viaduct

Will be the most difficult
stretch to take down.

We're starting on the eastern
end of this viaduct

To start the demolition
and bad news,

It's right over major freeways,

So we're gonna have to
actually shut down the freeway.

Narrator: The crew must demolish
the first section

Of this huge bridge
in less than 40 hours

Over a single weekend

To minimize
the los angeles gridlock.

♪

First, trucks dump earth
beside the freeway

To create an access ramp
for the demolition machines.

And cover the six lanes
in a foot thick layer of soil

To prevent huge chunks
of falling concrete

From shattering
the freeway tarmac.

Next, a squadron of high reach
demolition excavators

Will move in.

Their 65-foot long arms
shattering the famous bridge.

♪

Teams of workers will use
water cannons

To prevent clouds of dust

From blocking
the demolition crew's view.

Once the section
is torn to pieces,

Iron workers with powerful
cutting torches

Will slice through
the remaining forest

Of tangled steel reinforcements
to clear the way

For the new sixth street bridge.

♪

Friday, February 5, 2016.

While cameras snap the last
pictures of the iconic old

Viaduct in one piece...

The wrecking crews move in.

It's a shame that it has to go

Because everybody
knows the bridge.

♪

If it's structurally bad,
it has to come down.

Either we take it down
or an earthquake takes it down.

Narrator: Principle engineer
julie stands by

To witness the end of an era.

I won't be here the whole night,
but I want to make sure

It's moving smoothly,
yes, for sure.

Narrator: The old viaduct
puts up a fight.

But slowly, the machines
wrestle it down.

♪

Looks like there's
no turning back now.

Narrator: The demolition teams
work non-stop

And by Sunday morning,

The rubble is cleared

And the freeway below
is running again.

The first span of the old
viaduct is gone,

But the marathon has just begun.

From spring until christmas,

The demolition crews tear
and cut their way

Towards downtown los angeles.

♪

Once the dust settles,

Work can finally begin
on the new sixth street bridge.

We have a long way to go,
long way to go.

♪

Watch it!

♪

♪

Narrator: In los angeles,

Workers are racing
against the clock

To construct the new
sixth street bridge.

They did huge 130-foot deep
foundation piles

And begin to build
the 23 columns

That will support the bridge.

But deep foundations
are no help

When california's biggest
threat strikes.

The entire west coast is very
seismically active.

There's a history
of large earthquakes

Up and down
the west coast of the u.S.

Narrator: In 1994,
a earthquake measuring

6.4 on the richter scale

Strikes the northridge area
of los angeles.

The city's elevated freeways
snap at their joints.

57 people lose their lives
and chaos chokes the area's

Road network
for the next 12 months.

Protecting the bridge
from earthquakes

Is the team's single
biggest engineering problem.

This particular bridge,

We actually have it designed
to withstand

An earthquake that would only
happen once every 1,000 years,

So it's a very large
earthquake event.

Narrator: The team is building
the bridge

As one seamless piece of rigid
concrete to eliminate

Any weakness at the joints.

But they still need a way
of protecting it

From the violently
shaking ground below.

♪

Seismic engineer victor zayas

Is working on a solution
to this problem.

We have a magnitude
eight level earthquake

On average every 80 years.

And the last one was 1906.

So we're about 30 years
past overdue.

When the big one happens,
everywhere will be affected.

♪

Narrator:
Julie and the team in l.A.

Have given victor
a bold challenge.

He must not only stop the bridge
from collapsing,

But also keep it open
to vehicles

After an earthquake hits.

Zayas: If the bridge
isn't functioning,

Well, then the ambulance
can't take you

From where you're injured
to the hospital.

When we need that bridge most
is after the big earthquake.

Narrator:
Modern structures can be built

On special movable bearings

That isolate them
from an earthquake.

But doing the same
for this 3,000-foot long,

120,000-ton bridge

Will need some seriously
heavy engineering.

Even with the strongest columns,
a major earthquake would shake

The heavy bridge deck
off its supports.

To keep it from collapsing,

The team
will install special bearings

Into each of the bridges
23 support columns.

Inside each bearing
are three curved elements.

An outer plate,

An inner plate,

And the core.

These lubricated discs can slide
from side to side.

They allow nearly three feet
of movement in any direction

Without the deck
coming off of its supports.

This means that
in an earthquake,

The enormous bridge
can safely ride

The violent movements
of the ground below.

And the bearing's curved
surfaces mean that after

The earthquake stops,

The bridge will return
to its original position.

♪

Victor's idea
works well on paper,

But in practice,
the challenge is to make sure

These giant moving metal discs
stay lubricated.

Each one of these isolators
in the sixth street bridge

Will have about
10 million pounds of load on it.

Narrator: Under that pressure,

Traditional means
of lubrication are useless.

The temperature
in these isolators

Will rise up to
300 degrees centigrade.

If we put oil in there,
the oil could catch on fire.

Narrator:
Victor's ingenious solution

Is to insert
a wafer thin sheet

Of a special solid polymer
that self-lubricates.

We have created a new material
that has never existed before.

So this is
the lubricating material

That comes to the surface
during an earthquake.

So it is self-sacrificing

Solid lubricant
polymer composite.

So, without this the isolators
would be worthless.

♪

Narrator: Every element
of the bearing mechanism

Is precision cut

And polished to perfection.

♪

The slightest defect could cause
a catastrophic collapse

So victor doesn't let a single
bearing leave his factory

Without testing it
in an enormous

Earthquake simulator.

I call it the monster.

It has so much power.

If we use the energy in this
machine to launch a rocket,

We could launch a rocket from
california to new york city.

I believe this is
the most powerful

Piece of equipment
in the world.

Narrator: The machine
pushes down on the bearing

With millions of pounds
of pressure

To match the weight
of a building or bridge.

Okay, miguel, let's run
that first one.

Narrator:
When they flick the switch...

This is going to be a big
of an earthquake

As anybody would like
to ever see.

Narrator:
...Pressurized hydraulics

Force the bearing sideways

To mimic the back and forth
movement in an earthquake.

♪

♪

These isolators are a pass.

♪

While the bridge
is just coasting along,

The ground could be shifting
30 inches in any direction

And that will allow the bridge
to be stable

And remain undamaged
during a major earthquake event.

Narrator: Once the team
has installed bearings

On each column,

Workers enclose the y-shaped
sections with giant

Pre-made panels
and fill them with concrete.

♪

But above that, the mesh
of steel and concrete

Gets even more complicated.

Our tolerance is maybe an eighth
of an inch either way.

So we don't have a lot of room.

♪

♪

Narrator: In los angeles,

A construction team
has reached a crucial

And complex stage of
the sixth street bridge build.

One of the challenges
on this project

Is the amount
of reinforcement

That's in the structure
so for example,

What we call
the knuckle region here,

Each of these elements joins
together and all of the rebar

And the post-tensioning
coming from every direction

Has to be uniquely combined
and meshed together

So that everything fits.

Narrator: These key parts
of the bridge structure

Are so complex

That the team
must devise a different way

To create the concrete molds.

♪

On top of each isolator bearing,
workers simply used big,

Pre-formed panels

To cast the giant
y-shaped supports.

♪

But at the knuckle region,

The junction
of three large beams

Forms a complicated shape
of sweeping curves

With a tangle of connecting
steel reinforcement bars inside.

♪

These elements are so important
and so complex

That the team can't enclose them
within pre-made panels.

Instead, master carpenters
have to build the molds by hand,

50 feet up in the air.

One flank and sheet at a time.

♪

Lead carpenter
ryan tagliapietra

Heads one of the teams
building a form work.

Come in the middle of those two
right where your left hand is,

Bring that one and that one
and bump it out an eighth.

Narrator:
The bridge's swooping design

Requires ryan's team
to create the perfect shape

To hold the tons
of steel reinforcement

And liquid concrete.

♪

Transforming square planks
and beams into the smooth

Curves of the architect's vision
is no simple task.

The amount of angles,
the amount of detail,

The amount of complexity
that we've got here

Is nothing I've ever seen.

Narrator: The complicated
framework constantly throws them

Curve balls and today
is no different.

Into the top cap
is gonna hit

Where the bottom cap
of that last bent is.

We can't have it splitting.

As soon as it does that,
it's worthless.

That's a bummer.

Narrator: Two of their wooden
supports called bents

Are not meeting up properly

And ryan has to call
in the site engineer.

We might have
to just custom cut it.

Narrator: Shannon tynon is one
of three resident engineers

Responsible
for the whole bridge.

She must devise on the spot
solutions to avoid delays

And keep the team on track.

You tell me what
you want me to do.

I can get this in,
get the sofit done.

Well, looks like we'll be able
to bring it under this one

And have it hit to here.
-Okay.

And then that would allow us
to keep those posts

In the right spot.
-Okay.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Cool. Anything else?

-No.
-[ laughs ]

♪

Narrator: Ryan and the team
power on under the hot sun

To finish the framework.

Next, they line the frame with
wooden panels to create a mold

That they will fill
with concrete.

♪

They can't leave any gaps
or the concrete could escape.

Some of these holes
would leak like crazy

If you poured concrete on 'em.

And generally always try
to get it as tight

And perfect as possible.

And hopefully, this does it.

♪

Narrator: This accuracy
is even more important

In the knuckle area.

Here, the team has to use
a special concrete

That is far less viscous
than normal.

A 16th gap in plywood
and it'll spray, just spray out.

It's awesome.
Pour days are fun.

You don't want to have concrete

That flows through the form
and, you know,

Pours out on top of the freeway
or into the l.A. River,

So we'll have to make sure
that the forms are water tight.

Narrator: But when the time
comes to pour concrete,

Leaks are not
the team's only worry.

♪

Mullins: Anything left yet?
No? [bleep].

♪

♪

Narrator: At los angeles' new
sixth street bridge,

Workers are tackling the next
stage of this mammoth build.

Using a special water-thin
concrete

To fill the huge
so-called knuckle sections

Of the 3,000-foot long
super structure.

Within this zone in particular
there's a lot of congestion

So it's very challenging
for the contractor

To be able to make sure
everything fits

And be able to get concrete
in all of those spaces.

♪

Narrator: It's the day
of the concrete pour.

Construction manager
dale mullins has brought his men

In early
to beat the l.A. Gridlock.

Yeah.

It is about 4:15,

Our concrete truck
should be arriving any minute.

Narrator:
Sticking to a strict timetable

Is crucial to having
the concrete set properly.

The constant flow of trucks
is really important.

Being in l.A. You always have to
deal with traffic

And the concrete trucks
getting here.

Narrator:
Even with the early start,

This job will take the crew
an entire day.

Mullins: This pour should take
between 10 and 12 hours.

Big day for us.

We like pouring concrete,
that's what we do.

Narrator:
But as the minutes tick by,

There's no sign of the trucks.

Mullins: I'm gonna call
and see where the trucks are at.

Anything left yet?

No? [bleep].

All right, well, let me know
when he leaves.

Narrator: Additional testing
at the concrete plant

Has delayed the trucks

And thrown dale's plans
way off track.

4:35. [bleep].

I bet you we don't get
a truck here till 5:00.

Narrator: Over an hour later,

The first truck
finally arrives.

But dale's wait isn't over.

The concrete has to be
tested again

Before the team can pour it.

Mullins: This is where we lose
[bleep] time right here.

Narrator: If the concrete is
left to sit in the truck

For longer than two hours,

It will spoil and the entire
truckload will be wasted.

Mullins:
So we've got two hours.

So at 4:06, this was batched.

So we've got till 6:06 period,
we will not go over.

Narrator: Dale's team's
in a race against time.

Mullins: Concrete always
has a time limit.

From the time it's batched
to the time

You can put it into position.

It's kind of the science
of concrete.

Which is a little bit
above my head. [ laughs ]

I only got 20 minutes
left on this truck

So I know you guys got to do

What you got to do
but please hurry.

They're testing the consistency
of the concrete right now.

-Good?
-Yeah.

Okay.

Narrator:
With just minutes to spare...

Mullins:
I'm gonna back him in.

Narrator:
...The truck begins to pour.

♪

Keep it going, baby,
keep it going.

And we made it.

All right.
What have we got?

Two minutes to spare,
just barely.

♪

Narrator: The next truck pulls
in and things are looking up.

Each truckload goes into a pump,
which pushes concrete up

Through long arms and down
into the hollow form work.

About 45 more of them
and we'll be done.

♪

Narrator: But with day break
comes the next danger --

The baking california sun.

Concrete warms as it sets,
and weakens if it gets too hot.

So the team needs a way to cool
each truckload

Before they pour it.

Luckily, dale has
a secret weapon.

This build site has its
very own liquid nitrogen plant

That injects
each truck on arrival.

♪

This instantly cools
the concrete mix

By over 30 degrees.

The first couple of times
I saw it,

I've stopped and stared at it
probably for 10 minutes,

It was like, man, that's cool.

Narrator: As the heat rises,
the concrete trucks

And the liquid nitrogen
are in full flow.

♪

How's it going?

Everything's
going good right now.

We're a little bit
behind schedule

Due to some concrete service
but we worked out the kinks,

We're about half way
on all four knuckles

And things
are going pretty good.

Narrator:
The team can't stop

Once the concrete pour
is underway.

Eventually, more than 12 hours
after they began,

The knuckle pour is complete.

♪

A relieved dale
can finally get some rest.

That's the final truck,
we're all done. Hallelujah.

We started in the dark
and we finished in the dark,

So, pretty long day.

One step closer
to the coolest bridge

I've ever worked on.

♪

Narrator:
Over the next six months,

Workers cast another
36 knuckles

To top each of the bridges'
y-shaped columns.

Now, the team faces
their next big challenge.

They need a way to hold up
a heavy road deck

And 16,000 cars a day
across the long,

Unsupported distances
between the columns.

♪

This is it, we're almost
at a million pounds.

♪

♪

Narrator: In los angeles,
the team building the city's

New sixth street bridge
needs a way of supporting

This 3,000-foot long structure
between its giant pillars.

♪

Maltzan: Each part of the new
bridge has a very long span.

200 feet from column to column.

Narrator:
Architect michael maltzan's

Solution is to borrow

The iconic river arches
of the old bridge.

I thought the arch
was something

That maybe
we could make more out of

By taking the two arches
that span the river only,

And stretching those so that
they're now 10 pairs of arches,

20 arches in total
tying communities together.

Narrator: Each arch acts
as a suspension bridge,

Holding up its own span.

But michael wants something
slender and elegant

Compared to the thick girders
of the old bridge arches.

So the weight
of the enormously long spans

Will need to hang
on thin metal cables.

♪

Compared to the old viaduct,

The new bridge's supports are
far more spread out.

The concrete arches rising
from the arms of each y column

Will support the roadway
along these longer spans,

Just like a suspension bridge.

The arches will lean outwards
by nine degrees

To make the road
feel more open

And hold up the road deck
with an array of steel cables.

Each one is strong enough
to hold a million pounds...

♪

...But slender enough
to disappear

When the spectacular ribbon
is illuminated at night.

♪

To design the super strong cable
they need,

The l.A. Team works
with tim klein,

One of america's
leading cable experts.

The structural strand
that we produce is made

By alternating
the layers of wires.

We produce them from the right
to the left

And continue to build those
layers on top of one another.

So we're taking 176 wires

And spinning them
in alternate directions

To provide
that ultimate strength.

Narrator: The steel strand

For l.A.'s newest bridge
will be produced

On one of
the industry's oldest machines.

We produce cables
for the new san francisco

Oakland bay bridge,
the manhattan bridge.

We produced cables
for the brooklyn bridge.

And the san francisco
golden gate bridge.

So over the years,
we've produced

Millions of feet of strand
on this machine.

♪

This is what we call
a planetary strander,

Meaning the bobbins move
around the center of the wire,

Like planets around the sun.

Narrator: The safety
of the entire bridge

Rests on these cables,

So a practical test
of their strength is critical.

If we don't meet
the requirements a lot of people

Are gonna have to explain

Why our calculations
didn't come up correctly.

♪

Narrator:
At this special facility

In long beach, california,

Structural engineer kyle reed

Is about to put tim's
hanger cable to the test.

♪

We're gonna be pulling these
cables with the hydraulic ram

That can pull up to
three million pounds.

So seeing these cables
perform today

Is crucial to the path
of the project.

Narrator: The testers
rig up one sample

From each lot of cables
tim's team produced

And pull it until it snaps.

If any sample breaks before
it reaches

The required tension
of one million pounds,

Kyle has to reject
the entire batch.

We're getting ready to start
the test if you wouldn't mind

Stepping in behind the scatter
shield, please, thank you.

Narrator:
Everyone retreats to safety.

You good to go?

♪

Narrator:
As the huge ram fires up

And the cable
takes the strain...

♪

♪

Reed: If the sample does fail,
that entire lot will be scrapped

And we'll have to go back

And start all over
and make new cable.

Narrator: The tension builds.

Reed:
We're at 750,000 pounds,

The cable
seems to be holding up well.

We're gonna take it
to the final strength

Any minute now.

♪

This is it, we're almost
at a million pounds.

At any moment you should hear
this cable snap.

♪

Narrator: Under immense force,
the first wires begin to pop...

♪

...And the cable goes.

♪

They calculate
the final numbers

And to tim's relief,
it's a pass.

Good job out there.

Narrator: Kyle has cleared
the first batch of hanger cables

For use on the project.

♪

And the team is a major step

Closer to completing the mammoth
sixth street bridge.

But there's one critical gap
in the structure

Still left to tackle --

Across the active
railroad tracks.

We have
18 total railroad tracks

That we're crossing with
five different rail agencies.

They cannot relax.

They got to stay on their toes
at all times.

♪

♪

Narrator: In los angeles,

The brand-new sixth street
bridge is taking shape.

♪

The iconic y-shaped columns
have been cast and engineers

Are strengthening the beams
intended to hold the road deck.

But there's one crucial gap
in the structure

Still left to bridge

Across these busy
railroad tracks.

To pull off this feat,
the team must first construct

A temporary platform

Onto which they can then
safely build the roadway.

Well, going over railroads,

You have to build a bridge
on a bridge.

So you build this shield
over the railroads.

Narrator:
This shielding platform

Has to sit
at precisely the right height

Or the final roadway
won't be level.

And the problem with building
across these railroad tracks

Is that the trains loaded
with goods never stop.

These rail lines cannot be out
of service

Or the department stores
will have no goods,

There won't be food.

It just
is amazing responsibility

To not stop the work these
railroads do on a daily basis.

Narrator: The rail companies
have agreed to halt their trains

For just one weekend,

Giving the team
a razor thin window of 59 hours

To build the huge framework
across the tracks.

♪

As soon as the main tracks
are clear,

Forklifts carry in 40-foot
long metal pipes.

Then iron workers place them
in a row

And join them with huge girders
at the top

And bottom of the pipes

To create a frame
called a bent.

The team cranes it upright

And secures it against
large concrete blocks.

♪

The top of ever bent must be
exactly the same height

So that steel beams
placed on top

Create a perfectly level base

For the huge mold
for the concrete road deck.

They must finish the job
within 59 hours

Or risk bringing the rail
network to a screeching halt.

♪

Friday, 6 p.M.

Superintendent saul macias
leads the first of five shifts.

Macias:
We need to build two bents.

Try to get them ready
for the morning shift.

The goal for tonight is to get
those two bents stood.

♪

Narrator:
With so much time pressure,

The crammed patch
of railway track

Is a relentless stream
of machines and materials.

♪

Well, there's a lot
of dangers in here,

We got forklifts coming in,
in and out.

We got cranes going in.

We got powerlines up overhead.

A lot of people,
it's a very small area.

So we need to make sure
everybody know what it's doing.

Narrator: They lay down
one pipe after another

To create the bent.

So we're gonna built
the bents right there

In the middle of the tracks.

They're gonna be built flat

And then we'll stand them up
with the crane.

Because the morning guys
are gonna come in,

They're gonna start
setting those beams.

So yeah, we got to make sure

We get these bents up
before they get here.

Narrator: The crew raises
the first bent.

But just as it becomes vertical,
they spot a problem.

The first pipes were
the wrong length

And the top of the bent
is too low.

Guys, you're a wedge back
are not lining up with your pin.

Looks like it's going downhill.

Narrator: If the deck
doesn't sit level,

The whole bridge above it
will be misaligned.

♪

The crew grabs extra blocks

And wedges to achieve
the correct height.

It takes a long night shift

To line up the first bent
correctly and set it into place.

♪

They're now a quarter of the way
through the weekend

And running behind schedule.

Macias: It was a long night,
we got one up,

But we could have done better.

Rolando's coming over
to take over my spot

So hopefully their crew
has got a good day.

It's got to be done.

♪

Narrator: With the whole
operation at stake,

Foreman rolando's day shift

Has to work twice as fast
in this race to the finish.

The rest of the huge bents
go up quickly.

Barraza:
We still got a lot to do.

We're supposed to be off
the tracks by Monday morning

At 5 a.M.

Failure's not an option here.

It's one of those things,
we just -- you can't do it.

Narrator: By Sunday night,

The crews are
shuttling in the long beams

As fast as they can.

We got a limited amount of space
here, so everything's long

And everything's
gonna be real tight,

So we got to be careful.

♪

Narrator: At 1 a.M.
On Monday morning,

Four hours ahead of schedule,

The crane lifts the final beam.

That's it,
that's all she wrote.

Touchdown. Final one.

Narrator: The team has finished
the most crucial

And dangerous stage

Of the build in time
and unscathed.

I'm really happy.

Big milestone for us, you know,
zero incidents, no injuries.

You know, one more big step.

♪

Narrator: The crew pushes on
to bridge the remaining gaps

And install the road deck.

♪

Knowing that I'm building
something

That's gonna be standing for
what they figure over 100 years,

To me, it blows me away.

I've been doing this
for 14 years,

There's nothing else like this.

Narrator: When it opens,

This bridge will stand strong
well into the next century

Becoming a bold, new icon
for the los angeles skyline.

It's really one of a kind
structure for the entire world.

There's nothing quite like it
anywhere else

In the united states.

♪