Dutch Operator Deploys Computer Jacking System to Lift 725-Tonne Motorway Section
Wagenborg Nedlift, the heavy-lift division of Dutch-based maritime logistics group, Royal Wagenborg, has deployed a computer-controlled jacking system and other specialist equipment to manoeuvre a 725-tonne bridge deck near Kamen, northwest Germany.
The entire prefabricated deck, known as an Expressbrücke due to the speedy time it takes to build and install, measured 17 metres by 19 metres, and was lifted at a nearby construction site using eight climbing jacks, each with a capacity of 250 tonnes.
More than 1,700 jacking beams were positioned to raise the bridge section to a height of five metres.
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“We opted for bamboo beams because they are very dimensionally stable and ultra-strong,” said Bart van den Belt, project manager at Wagenborg Nedlift. “Ideal for an operation like this.”
The deck was placed onto two SPMTs each with 16 axle lines and slowly transported to the installation site on the A2 motorway at Kamen. A jacking system was placed beneath the deck to raise it a further 80 cm over abutments and onto the ground.
The bridge lane will be put into use at the end of July, the company said, after which a second lane will be replaced. According to the company, some 4,000 bridges in Germany will need to be upgraded over the next decade.
“All in all, we brought in more than twenty trucks with equipment to carry out this jacking and transport operation,” van den Belt said. “The team of bridge specialists worked shoulder to shoulder for days. And with result: the entire operation ran like clockwork.”
In related news, construction has begun on Wagenborg Shipping’s third EasyMax multipurpose vessel at the Royal Niestern Sander shipyard in the Netherlands.
Wagenborg Shipping is also a division of Royal Wagenborg.
The 150-metre-long, box-shaped EasyMax ship has a deadweight cargo capacity of 14,000 tonnes, and was jointly developed by Wagenborg and Niestern Sander. The first of the fleet was built in 2017, with a second delivered in 2021.
Delivery of the latest newbuild is expected in the first half of 2023.
Watch a video of Wagenborg Nedlift’s bridge deck move:
