Swedish construction company Jinert has used SPMTs from Cometto to replace a 100-year-old bridge which connects the Swedish towns of Vänersborg and Djupedalen.
Built by German engineers to allow sailing boats to pass through, the bridge is set on Lake Vänern, Sweden’s largest lake. Vänersborg and Djupedalen are connected by a railway line which passes over the bridge.
The bridge, however, had to be dismantled because of its age. “In order to maintain rail traffic without interruption as far as possible, the construction of new bridge sections began early on,” said Joakim Andersson, SPMT transport manager at Jinert.
The sections were moved from the production site, which was around 500 m from the pier, in three transports conducted at night.
The bridge bearing weighed 120 tonnes and measured 14 m x 9 m x 11 m. The counterweight cantilever also weighed 120 tonnes and was 20 m high. The bridge itself was 147 tonnes and measured 42 m in length. To move these, Jinert opted for a 10-axle combination in side-by-side mode, enabling extremely tight manoeuvres without damage.
Following the night drive, in which Jinert used Cometto’s night-light-kit, the components were loaded onto a barge by crane. Jinert then installed the components on-site.
In December 2024, BAE Systems added 156 Cometto MPSE axle lines to its transport fleet in Florida, USA.
