Video -Sarens bypass Lincoln in record time

Date 1 November 2063

Braithwaite Engineers commissioned Sarens on behalf of Galliford Try Infrastructure to lift the bridge girders for the Lincoln Eastern Bypass over the  Lincoln to Market Rasen railway line. The bypass will relieve traffic congestion in and around Lincoln city centre, where some of the roads date back to the Roman occupation of England, almost 2,000 years ago. The Bridge was being constructed over the operational railway line which was closed to trains for executing the project.  

Selecting the equipment and placing them between the high voltage power lines around the site made the working area very tight to challenge the team,. Sarens decided to deploy the AK680-3 as it would be capable of lifting the bridge girders from their erection position without the use of the superlift tray. The superlift tray was connected once the crane had slewed the load around towards its final position. 

The AK680-3 and other support equipment was driven to site from the Middlesbrough office in the North East of England. It took around 4 days to complete the rigging of the crane, made even more challenging by a fairly steep gradient in the area where the back mast and main boom needed to be built.  

Our team of four crew members lifted four paired and braced bridge girders. The heaviest lift performed was 107t at 48.8m radius. Due to the presence of the power lines the crane could only slew in one direction, but the team completed the challenging task within 10 hours, releasing the traffic for the trains in the specified time. 

The customer was extremely pleased with the performance of the crane and our crew. Project Manager for Galliford Try Infrastructure, Steven Flanagan says, “”I take this opportunity to add my thanks for painstakingly delivering what was a fantastic and well deserved outcome. I am really appreciative of all the hard work, both during the possession and in the many weeks leading up to the big event!”

source Sarens Photograph – Sarens