The erection of trestling for the new rail bridge build, which was a single ‘U’ deck weighing 100t, was supplied and conducted by a team of experts from ALE.
Using SPMTs, the company installed the new rail bridge over Cleatham Road in Kirton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire.
Once the bridge has been erected and the temporary works fixed and secured, a trial move was carried out.
The trial move took place during a night time road closure and the bridge was lifted off the trestles thanks to the stroke of the SPMTs.
In addition, the bridge was then driven the full length of the route up to the existing bridge. This move was necessary to guarantee that there were no issues on the route that hadn’t already been highlighted on the swept path drawings.
In order to carry out the trial move and after that the actual installation, ALE had to utilise climbing jacks on the SPMTs because there was an immovable power cable, which ran parallel to the road and across the site entrance.
This also meant that the steelwork packing on the SPMTs needed to be reduced to decrease the overall height of the bridge and SPMTs, so there was the required clearance between the power cable and the top of the bridge.
The bridge installation itself was completed in just one day, employing 12 axle lines of SPMT in a 4 file 6 configuration to transport the bridge.
Additionally, ALE positioned the SPMTs underneath the new bridge deck and the deck lifted clear of the trestles.
Once the road was clear of construction vehicles, the SPMTs moved the bridge out of the compound, maintaining the clearances between the top of the bridge and the live power cable.
From there, the SPMTs were parked up at the agreed location for the bridge deck to be jacked-up to installation height, using the climbing jacks on the SPMTs. Once at the installation height and all works on the abutments had been completed, the bridge was installed into its permanent location.
