Replacement of a railway bridge, UK

9 April 2018

Overview

ALE successfully performed the replacement of Burnaby Road railway bridge in Portsmouth, during a five-day road and rail blockade.

Services Required

ALE was contracted to supply multi use high-level trestling which was erected using a small mobile crane prior to the bridge sections arriving on site. The trestling was utilised for the erection of the new bridge and was re-used for the existing bridge during the five-day blockade.

ALE supplied a total of 24 axle lines of SPMTs in a configuration of 2 x 4 file 6 with a 1 axle offset, one set of SPMTs was utilised for the removal of the existing bridge, weighing approximately 50t, and the other for the installation of the new bridge, weighing 200t, consisting of two ‘U’ decks and two cill units.

The SPMTs were rigged prior to the start of the blockade within the confines of a very small compound adjacent to the bridge, also the location of the multiuse trestling. This meant that ALE needed to plan this precisely due to the limited space available.

After the successful removal of the existing bridge and installation of the new bridge, the de-mobilisation and jack-down of the existing bridge had to be carried out and completed prior to the end of the five- day road and rail blockade. This was achieved ahead of schedule, with over 24 hours to spare.