Tricky Trilogiport Bridge for ALE

Heavy lift and specialized transport service provider ALE helped complete the installation of the Trilogiport Bridge in Visé, Belgium.

The bridge was 300 metres long and comprised five sections, each weighing between 221 tonnes and 737 tonnes. The bridge pieces were installed in five stages, with the first two by land and the final three over water; this was carried out using a barge and jacking combination.

Using 24 axle lines of self propelled modular transporter (SPMT), the first bridge section was moved to its final position. The piece weighed 579 tonnes. Once in place it was jacked up 6.5 m and lowered into position using climbing jacks. The second section weighed 318 tonnes and was moved using 20 axle lines of SPMT. Once in place it was jacked up to a height of 9 m using ALE’s jacking system.

The third section of the bridge was installed using a combination of 24 axle lines of SPMT on two coupled barges and the ALE jacking system. To get into position, the section was loaded out onto the barge and floated out onto the river. Once in place, it was jacked up to a height of 10.5 m from the water line, before being floated into position and lowered onto its supports.

To install the final two sections, the barge was floated under the existing bridge, the Pont de Hermalle sous-Argenteau. Using the same barge combination as before, the fourth section was jacked up to a height of 10.5 m using ALE’s jacking system, while section five was lifted using four 70 tonne strand jacks that were previously installed on bridge sections three and four.

Hans de Hoon, ALE project manager, said, “This particular project involved installing five bridge sections, with three weighing over 500 tonnes, within only three months. Because of the bridge’s length and the different locations we decided to split this project into eleven phases of execution, which we believed worked extremely effectively.

“This is a great start to 2015 and we are very pleased with the hard work carried out by the team to ensure that all five sections were installed safety and on schedule.”

The project started in January 2015 and was completed by February.