April 12 - Sarens has transported and installed a 530-tonne, 74 m long steel bridge into its final position in Germany.
The Gartroper Bridge, built by civil engineering contractor Amand, was assembled entirely on land and had to be skidded over the water for installation.
For the project Sarens utilised eight CS250 jacking towers (four on land and four on a barge), two 45-tonne capacity strand jacks, two sets of eight axle lines of self-propelled modular transporters (SPMT), two skid shoes, various hydraulic winches and a ballasting system.
To transport the bridge into its final position, Sarens assembled a jacking system with skid shoes in front of the abutment, before the SPMTs were installed on the backside of the bridge. The SPMTs pushed the bridge forward for approximately 25 m.
Four CS250 jacking towers installed on board the Barge Jozef were positioned below the front of the bridge, taking over the load from the skid shoes. The SPMTs and barge then moved the bridge forward.
The bridge was then jacked up on the skid shoes again, and the SPMTs were removed, leaving the barge and skid shoes to support the full weight of the bridge. Strand jacks were connected between the skid shoes and the end of the bridge, pushing it over the skid shoes and into its final position. The bridge was then jacked down onto its supports using the CS250 jacking system.
In a separate project, Sarens moved a 2,992-tonne Engie Fabricom substation onto a barge for transport from Hoboken, Antwerp to the Racebank wind farm, off the coast of Norfolk, UK.
Sarens unloaded its SPMTs by crane, where they were assembled into a configuration of four trains with 22 axles each. The Sarens team used load cells connected to a computer to determine the substation's total weight and centre of gravity.
While the SPMTs supported the weight of the substation, Sarens rotated its barge into position so it could receive the load. A winch and truck were used as the rotation point. In order to account for the river's tidal fluctuations, which rises and falls by several metres, Sarens operators pumped water in and out of the ballast tanks to keep the barge aligned with the quay.
The SPMTs were driven underneath the substation and drove aboard the barge, where the substation was secured. The SPMTs then drove out from underneath the load and back on to the quay.
A video of the project can be viewed here.
