A brand new railway viaduct has been accomplished simply outdoors London, as a part of the HS2 railway passing close to Wendover.
Aerial picture of completion of 8 month Wendover Dean Viaduct deck slide August 2024 (c) HS2
The Wendover Dean Viaduct passes over a large valley simply south of Wendover and was constructed by constructing a sequence of piers first, then sliding the bridge – all 3,700 tonnes of it – onto the piers from the northern finish.
The deck of the Wendover Dean Viaduct – which stretches for 450m – was assembled in three phases, starting from 90m to 180m, with each pushed out from the north abutment earlier than the subsequent part was hooked up behind it. This eight-month course of meant that the deck’s weight elevated with every push, up from an preliminary 590 tonnes firstly of labor in January to three,700 tonnes by the point it reached the south abutment on Saturday.
In the course of the slide, particular pads coated in Teflon – a fabric often discovered on the floor of a non-stick frying pan – had been used to minimise friction between the deck and the non permanent metal bearings on high of every of the concrete piers. To assist keep management, the deck was pushed barely uphill, with the end level roughly 1.8m increased than the beginning level.
With the steelwork now in place, engineers can begin decreasing the deck onto the everlasting bearings, which is able to help the complete weight of the construction. The 2-month lengthy operation will see the steelwork above every pier rigorously lowered by 20cm at a time, pier-by pier, till the entire 450m lengthy deck settles into its closing place.
Aerial view of Wendover Dean Viaduct deck push Might 2024 (c) HS2
HS2’s Head of Supply, Nicola Henderson-Reid stated: “The final eight months have been unbelievable, and I’d wish to thank everybody concerned in getting us to the place we’re in the present day. It’s been fascinating to observe the deck slowly inch into place, and we now stay up for the subsequent stage of the undertaking – decreasing the deck into closing place and finishing the advanced concrete work that may help the brand new railway.”
As soon as the deck is in its closing place, work can start on the concrete that may help the railway utilizing a specifically designed travelling formwork. Shifting slowly from north to south, this stage is anticipated to take round a 12 months and can be adopted by the set up of the parapets alongside the sting of the viaduct.
CGI of the completed Wendover Dean Viaduct (c) HS2
The Wendover Dean Viaduct is the primary main railway bridge within the UK to be constructed with a ‘double composite’ construction, which makes use of considerably much less carbon-intensive concrete and metal than a extra conventional design.
As a substitute of utilizing stable pre-stressed concrete beams to kind the spans between the viaduct piers, the hole ‘double composite’ construction makes use of two metal beams sandwiched between two layers of bolstered concrete to create a extra environment friendly tremendous robust span. The same strategy can be getting used at Small Dean, Westbury, Decrease Thorpe and Turweston, that are all at an earlier stage of development.
All 5 viaducts are being constructed by HS2’s essential works contractor, EKFB – a group made up of Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial Building and BAM Nuttall – with the manufacture and set up of the beams being led by specialists at Eiffage Metallic.
This text was printed on ianVisits
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