Mammoet assists railway station expansion

The deck was moved almost 145m at the newly-built station hall as part of a large renovation project for the Municipality of The Hague and ProRail.

Mammoet began the project by transporting the deck parts from Belgium, where they had been manufactured by steel construction company Iemants, based in Arendonk. The move took a total of 15 transport operations, with the bridge parts assembled into an 88m-long deck weighing 800t, using mobile cranes between 50t and 500t in capacity.

Project manager Eelco de Leeuw said: "We had limited working space which made it necessary to assemble the bridge at a height of 12m. The launch was also challenging due to the distance between the front and end sections of the deck and the need for precision installation at each end point.

"We were also working across a gap spanning 39m on the 'Prins Bernhardviaduct' and the deck could only cross a gab spanning of 28m. We solved this by supporting the railway deck with 16 axle lines of SPMTs, which also prevented it from flexing or bending during launching."

Mammoet is now transporting a new shipment of steel parts, for the second railway deck at the station, and is due to arrive in mid-October.