Balfour Beatty VINCI has moved a 1,600-tonne steel and concrete bridge into place in Birmingham in just five hours as part of works to take HS2 to the city.
The new Aston Church Road bridge, which is 84 metres long and 21 metres wide, was moved over the existing Birmingham to Derby railway line but will also sit above the new HS2 tracks.
The consortium said the bridge also provides an upgraded, safer section, including cycleways, of Aston Church Road, which connects Saltley, Washwood Heath and Nechells in north-east Birmingham.
Work started at 10pm on Saturday (10 August), with the bridge reaching its final position at 3am on Sunday morning.
The operation was delivered by Balfour Beatty VINCI and its specialist bridge move contractor, heavy lifting engineering experts Mammoet, during a Network Rail blockade.
The consortium said the technique of building the structure on land next to the existing railway and moving it into position in one operation, significantly reduces disruption.
Mammoet moved the bridge into place using two 128-wheeled self-propelled modular transporters across a matting bed put down over the tracks by Pod-Trak to provide a level surface.
The new composite bridge was designed by a design joint venture of Mott MacDonald and Systra, working for Balfour Beatty VINCI. It is made of a concrete deck cast over steel girders with glass reinforced plastic panels used as permanent formwork.
Dan Binns, project manager Saltley Area for Balfour Beatty VINCI, said: ‘There’s an enormous feeling of pride within the team after safely manoeuvring an 84-metre, 1,600 tonne bridge into place last weekend.
‘This was a complex operation, made even more challenging because the bridge needed to be driven over four existing network rail lines, requiring years of precise planning and preparation.
‘We purposely chose to move the bridge on wheels, so it could be built offline first, then moved across in just five hours, greatly reducing the impact on rail passengers.’
Steve Powell, HS2’s head of delivery said: 'This is another great construction milestone for HS2 in the West Midlands, with our teams using the most innovative techniques to deliver feats of engineering safely and efficiently.
‘It’s also a great example of how the new infrastructure we’re building for HS2 also upgrades the local road network, providing big improvements for local communities.’
Over the next 14 months, the original Aston Church Road bridge will be demolished to create the extra space for the HS2 line to pass through, and works will get underway to connect the new bridge to the existing road network.
