Asian Hercules supports Bandra Worli Sea-link

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The Asian Hercules lifts the truss

The Asian Hercules, one of the biggest floating shear leg cranes in the world, has lifted a 1260t launching truss to relocate it on the Worli side of the Bandra Worli Sea-Link. Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), which is building the MSRDC’s prestigious Sea-Link project, hired the colossal floating crane Asian Hercules from Singapore, owned by Asian Lift, a Joint Venture of KEPPEL & SMIT. 

The Asian Hercules crane is mounted on a barge which is over 240 feet long and more than 130 feet wide, weighs 5,900 tons and has enough lifting capacity (1600 MT) to lift a weight equal to 2,000 small cars. It started its voyage from Singapore on October 9, 2006 and arrived at Mumbai's shores on October 27, 2006. After obtaining the necessary regulatory clearances, it commenced operations from November 06, 2006, which included trial runs and realignments in its settings. It finally lifted the massive 110 meter long Launching Truss today.

Two launching trusses, each 110 meters long, were custom built to precision by HCC for the Sea-Link project towards construction of the eight-lane (2 X 4 lanes), 5.5 km long bridge. The precast concrete segments of this four-lane road are fabricated at the Bandra site location itself. These segments are carried on a barge to the construction location and are lifted by the Launching Truss to the designated height to assemble between two pillars, each 50 meters apart. Fifteen such segments are fitted between two pillars and the Launching Truss can lift all fifteen segments together, weighing 130 tons each, between two pillars. Once these segments are fixed between two pillars, the Launching Truss crawls to the next pillar with its mechanical legs.

Asian Hercules readies itself to lift bridge truss

The 800 meter-stretch of the Sea-Link from the Bandra shoreline to the beginning of the Cable Stay span is already complete. The 500 meter-long Cable Stay bridge was included in the entire span to ease vessel movement under the bridge. In this section the gap between two pillars is 250 mts and the Launching Truss cannot cross this section on its own. Secondly, dismantling the Launching Truss and re-assembling it on the other side of the Cable stay span would have taken considerable time causing delay in the project. Hence, the massive Asian Hercules was hired to shift these two Launching Trusses on the other side of the cable stay bridge to construct the Worli side of the Sea-Link, so that the work is carried out with the same vigour and momentum without interruption.

The Asian Hercules crane, built in 1996, performed its first heavy lift task in March 2000 at Barcelona to lift two bascule spans (each weighing 1,100 tones) for the new Barcelona Bridge providing access to a new ferry terminal. Since then it has performed a number of challenging tasks including construction of the world's largest offshore wind farm around 20 miles off the Danish coast, heavy lift tasks during the outfitting of the Terra Nova, the first FPSO to be deployed in Canadian waters, and lifting the topsides for the Rosetta platform in offshore Egypt.

The Bandra Worli Sea-Link, a Rs.1,306 core project of MSRDC, will link the island city of Mumbai with its western suburbs.  Once it is constructed, Mumbai residents will experience far reaching changes in their travel patterns. Currently, Mumbai gets increasingly choked with traffic at Mahim with over 1,20,000 vehicles crossing the causeway every day. It takes nearly an hour to travel the 8 km distance between Mahim and Worli. When the Sea-Link is completed, this distance will be reduced to 4.70 km and can be traversed in just six minutes.

The Bandra Worli Sea-Link will have an eight-lane freeway, with two independent four lanes each for onward and return traffic. The entire stretch of the Bandra Worli Sea-Link will have

? ·       A 449 m long embankment with 16 lane toll plaza on the Bandra side

? ·       A 800 m long precast segmental approach bridge on the Bandra side

? ·       A 600 m long cable stayed bridge with 125 m high towers

? ·       A 200 m long precast segmental bridge between the cable stayed bridges

? ·       A 350 m long cable stayed bridge with tower heights of 54.779m & 52.829m respectively on the Worli side

? ·       A 811 m long link bridge to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Road at the Worli Sea Face end.

The original project design was modified to include two separate towers for the main cable stay bridge. In addition to this, the bridge was realigned around 150 meters into the sea and an additional cable stay bridge was introduced at the Worli side to increase the height of the bridge to accommodate the demands of local fishermen of Worli Koliwada to ease the vessel movement under the bridge closer to their habitat. Due to the change in the scope of work, the project was delayed in the initial stages, which resulted in increased project cost. Presently the work is in full swing and the Bandra Worli Sea-Link is expected to be complete by April 2008.

At present, the 449 m embankment and the 800 m long precast segmental approach bridge on the Bandra side has been completed and the most complicated job of laying the foundation for over 362 points including two cable stayed bridges has been completed.

MSRDC has awarded the contract of constructing the Bandra Worli Sea-Link - Package - IV to Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) and its foreign partner China Harbour Engineering Corporation, which has successfully completed similar projects. HCC has the responsibility of maintaining the bridge during the damage liability period of five years.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation is fully owned by the Government of Maharashtra. It has been constituted to accelerate development of transport infrastructure facilities in the state.