We are immensely proud that our project, ‘Renovation of the movable parts of the Haringvliet Bridge’, has won the 2024 National Steel Award! This project had many exceptional challenges, but through innovation and teamwork, we successfully overcame them!
Enormous scope
The renovation involved one of the largest bascule bridges in the Netherlands. Replacing the 2.050-tonne bridge halyard including a 1.300-tonne ballast box required special support structures and advanced lifting techniques, such as the use of 3 large lifting trestles and dredging the lifting area.
Strict planning
The war in Ukraine and low water on the rivers in Western Europe caused significant delays in steel deliveries and critical planning problems. Thanks to an alternative fabrication plan in which the bridge was built in one piece instead of three separate sections, and by making extra capacity available, the very tight deadline could still be achieved. This immediately allowed the obstruction for renovation of the Heinenoord Tunnel to be completed.
ROK 2.0 requirements
The bridge had to fulfil Rijkswaterstaat’s new ROK 2.0 requirements. This meant, among other things, that all welds had to be full-pen executed within very tight tolerances, the troughs had very precise measurements and there were specific requirements for the finishing. This was time-consuming and required a high degree of craftsmanship.
Precision work
The bridge halyard had to be produced to the millimetre. The adjustment of the movement work even came down to hundredths of millimetres.
Tilting the bridge halyard
Tilting the huge, 700-tonne bridge halyard, on the premises of Hollandia Infra, was a technical challenge that demanded even the limit of the large lifting trestle Matador 3.
‘Plug-and-play’ approach
The bridge halyard was completely pre-assembled in the factory, including ballast box, movement gear and cabling. This minimised on-site installation time and reduced traffic obstruction.
Storm Poly and the lifting moment
During the crucial lifting moment of the new halyard, upcoming storm Poly created additional tension. Nevertheless, the operation was carried out carefully and successfully.
Thanks to the efforts of our entire project team (Mobilis TBI, Croonwolter&dros, Hollandia Infra and Machinefabriek Rusthoven B.V.) and the cooperation with Rijkswaterstaat, traffic flow is once again guaranteed for the coming years. A fantastic steel project with great social impact!
Read here more about this project.
