Ainscough installs Greater Manchester road bridge

In this project, Ainscough was working for infrastructure company Murphy Group.

The Richmond Street Bridge crosses the Manchester to Huddersfield railway line and was in need of replacing after the original 100 year old bridge fell into disrepair.

The TC2800-1 was configured with a 72m main boom, a 160t super structure counterweight and a 250t super lift counterweight to install the bridge’s sill beams, parapet beams, and internal beams and approach units.

Completing the lifts over four 12h shifts while a rail possession was in place, technical contracts manager Dave Baxter, was pleased with the outcome. He said: “We were working with very tight parameters which meant we needed to be extra vigilant. We set up in a narrow yard parallel to the rail track, with only 11m to operate in. With the time limits on rail possession, you always have one eye on the clock but I had no doubt that the team would complete the work in a swift and efficient manner and they didn’t let me down.”

Paul Mohan, rail sector director at Murphy, said: “We have created a bridge that will last for the next 125 years, using many of the specialist in-house skills at Murphy. We successfully dealt with a number of unforeseen challenges. This included the discovery of a sewer inspection chamber four metres below the rail track, not previously identified on any utility drawings. We redesigned the bridge to construct an inspection chamber at road level, five metres above ground." 

Following the installation, additional works were carried out until the 730t bridge was re-opened to traffic in November 2016.