Engineers working on HS2 have moved a 1,600-tonne bridge into place over an existing railway on the outskirts of Birmingham.
The 84 m-long and 21 m-wide Aston Church Road bridge in Saltley has been moved across the existing Birmingham to Derby railroad line.
The work started at 22:00 on Saturday, August 10 and the bridge reached its final position at 03:00 the following day.
The operation was delivered by Balfour Beatty Vinci, HS2’s primary works contractor in the Midlands and its specialist bridge move contractor Mammoet. The railway was handed back to Network Rail five hours earlier than planned.
Mammoet moved the bridge using two 128-wheeled self-propelled modular transporters across a matting bed put down over the tracks by Pod-Trak to provide an even surface.
As high-speed trains enter and exit Birmingham, the bridge will be positioned above the recently constructed HS2 tracks. The remaining structures around the bridge and the parapet panels’ steel assembly are planned to be finished in the coming weeks.
Last month, HS2 installed 83 concrete beams as part of a 91 m-long bridge on the West Coast Main Line near Kenilworth, UK.
