Netherlands-headquartered heavy lift and transportation specialist Mammoet has transported and installed four steel sections for a 250-metre footbridge in Sunderland, UK, called the New Wear Footbridge. Once open, the bridge will connect the city centre to the Stadium of Light – home of Sunderland football club.
In total the four steel bridge sections weighed 1,150 tonnes. The were transported by ship from their fabrication yard in Ghent, Belgium, where they had been made by Victor Buyck Steel Construction, to the site in Sunderland.
Working with Belgium-based marine heavy-lift specialist HEBO, Mammoet arranged for the four bridge sections to the shipped via two voyages spaced a month apart. It says this ‘just in time’ approach allowed enough space for the operations team at Mammoet to install the first two sections and prepare for the arrival of the remaining two.
For the first two sections, Mammoet positioned its team on the north side of the river, ready to receive and lift them from a barge using a Liebherr LR 11350 crawler crane. The first two bridge sections were lifted from the barge onto concrete plinths close to the water’s edge.
The team then dismantled the crane and relocated to the south side of the river, ready to receive the second delivery. One more bridge section was placed on plinths, then the final and largest section, measuring 105 metres, was lifted from the barge using strand jacks connected to the previously installed sections.
For this strand jacks were necessary as the crawler crane didn’t have the capacity to perform the heavy lift of the final centre section, which was 300 tonnes heavier than the other parts. The alternative would be to erect the bridge in five sections, which would have lengthened the project schedule.
For the full story, plus a video, see: www.cranestodaymagazine.com /news/heavy-lift-sunderland
