Complex bridge job for Ainscough

9 September 2021

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Three cranes used to assemble and install a bridge in Sugar House Island, east London, UK.

The UK division of international real estate organisation Vastint Group commissioned UK crane rental firm Ainscough Crane Hire to construct and install a new bridge at Sugar House Island, east London, UK.

The job was a three-stage operation involving attaching a 23 metre timber section to concrete abutments before lifting the completed bridge into place.

The first stage was to offload precast bridge units with a maximum weight of 11 tonnes. These were placed in a compound using a Liebherr LTM 1095-5-1 crane. Large mats were used to reduce loadings.

A Liebherr LTM 1250-6.1 was deployed for the second stage to offload the timber bridge section, weighing 22 tonnes, onto transport to enable it to be in position for its final lift.

From there the LTM 1250-6.1 picked up and installed the precast bridge units on alternate sides of the bridge until the new structure was fully formed.

The final stage of the project involved using a Terex TC2800-1 crane on a 66 metre strut boom with 160 tonnes of superstructure counterweight and 200 tonnes of superlift counterweight.

The Terex TC2800-1 and Liebherr LTM 1250-6.1 were used to tandem lift the 80 tonne built bridge into a radius that enabled the Terex TC2800-1 to complete the lift on its own.

From there the bridge was lifted, with no superlift counterweight, slewed round, using 200 tonnes of counterweight, then attached before being jibbed down and slewed into its final position.

The bridge had been precision-designed using 3D modelling. This meant that, when lifted into position, 40 threaded rods fixed to the concrete slotted into the foundations.

The lift was delayed by several hours due to wind delay but once the Ainscough team began the operation was completed efficiently and without incident.

Andrew Yacoub, assistant project manager, Vastint, said, “Ainscough Crane Hire’s Heavy Cranes team was extremely professional, punctual, and careful in not damaging the timber bridge when removing the slings. They are a credit to Ainscough. We were delayed by over two hours but due to Ainscough’s professionalism and expertise the bridge was in position only 45 minutes later than planned.”