Here's how PennDOT is going to move the new Commercial Street Bridge into place on the Parkway East

With just over two days until the Parkway East is closed for 25 days so that PennDOT can replace the Commercial Street Bridge, there are still a lot of questions about how crews are going to install the new bridge.

It really is a mind boggling task, but the company that's going to be responsible for helping PennDOT move the new bridge specializes in moving large objects.

When a giant containment dome needed moved into place at the failed Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Mammoet, a company from the Netherlands that specializes in moving heavy things, did the job.

Mammoet will now be moving the Commercial Street Bridge into place along the Parkway East -- a trip of 120 feet. 

PennDOT Senior Assistant Construction Manager John Myler said that crews are planning on around a 24 hour time frame that the new bridge, which weighs 22 million pounds, will be able to moved in its entirety. 

Myler said he's aware of the talk about the bridge making its slide into place using dish soap, adding that there are times where dish soap is a very good lubricant and can be good in a pinch -- but this is no pinch. 

"For this process, we are not using dish soap," Myler said. "We have some, I don't know the specific name of it, but it's a manufactured lubricant, spray lubricant that will be applied to the Teflon that we're sliding."

Mammoet's 42 red jacks that will be used to lift and slide the new bridge are ready for the push.

"The hydraulic pushing system has a three foot stroke, so it'll be sort of like three feet at a time," Myler said.

Those three feet might be over 10 minutes to a half-hour or more, so will it be visible to the naked eye? Myler said that it will be, in spurts.

Myler said the best time that the naked eye will be able to see the bridge moving is when it starts to come into alignment with the existing Parkway. 

"That's kind of a good visual moment where you'll see like the movement very obviously," Myler said.

The entire process from the final car across the old bridge on Friday night to the first car crossing the new span is slated for 25 days.

Myler said the process could be completed earlier, in a perfect world.

"Everything has to go according to plan, but our goal is to not use all the 25 days," Myler said.

The contractor for the project is heavily incentivized to get the job done quicker, meaning that the sooner it opens, the bigger the bonus.

There won't be a lot of great places to watch the new bridge being slid into place in person, but PennDOT said it's making arrangement to have live cameras follow the move.