Panama Ports Company, a division of Hutchison Ports Holding Group, was interested in upgrading to a larger-capacity container crane for their existing facilities in the Port of Cristóbal, within the city of Colón, Panamá. The original berths were built in the early 1910s and consisted of two layers of concrete slabs, riveted steel beams encased in concrete, and concrete-filled steel pipe shafts in the foundation.

The owners contracted Dillon Construction Inc. (DCI) to perform a series of tests on several structural elements and soils at the site of their existing facility. DCI contracted LCR&A to design and perform load tests of the beam elements. A reaction frame was designed by LCR&A and built by DCI to support 80 tons of dead loads. Axial loading was simultaneously applied at four loading points in two beams to simulate the factored loading from the new crane that would provide the highest bending moments and shears on the existing beams. Vertical movements of the beams were measured with digital extensometers connected to an automated data acquisition system. Loads were measured with four independent load cells connected to the data acquisition system and with four independent calibrated hydraulic jacks.