Work on the water
Displace water instead of traffic. Mammoet has won a heavylift transport job to replace five bridges in a transport network around Amsterdam Centraal, the city’s main railway station. The project is expected to go on until 2028. A part of the work will be carried out on the water.
The heavylift transport specialist Mammoet is set to realise a major project, together with the Dutch engineering firm Dura Vermeer. They’ll replace four steel and one concrete bridge for rail traffic on the eastern side of Amsterdam Centraal railway station.
According to a media release from Mammoet the company will be involved in loading, transporting and installing three bridge sections required for each overpass. Each one is more than 20 m long and weighs up to 275 t.
The projects are expected to be completed in 2028. With construction starting in 2024, this thus represents a construction frequency of around one bridge a year. This will keep disruption to a minimum. In addition to the staggered building times, the bridges will be built almost entirely from the water.
Float in the heavy loads
The bridge sections will be transported by barge on the Lek Canal, on the one hand. The barge used for installation will be weighed down by water-filled copper pontoons, on the other, to stand lower in the water. This will allow it to pass under a low-lying bridge during its work.
A 90 t crane will then be erected on a mobile bridge, to replace the pontoons on the barge with self-propelled modular vehicles (SPMTs). Mammoet’s ‘MegaJack 300 System’ will then lift the bridge elements to a height of 4 m and thus onto the deck and the SPMTs.
These rotatable vehicles will then move the elements over steel mats to the desired position on support towers. “This makes it rather a complex process, as space is quite limited and many steps have to be carefully managed,” as Mammoet project manager Leo de Vette stated in the media release.
According to de Vette it is a tailor-made solution from Mammoet that allow the railway station to remain operational despite the work. “Disruption to passengers and the city is minimal,” says the project manager.
All part of a larger project
Replacing the bridges is part of a larger project for a high-frequency railway transport programme that the Dutch railway infrastructure operator ProRail is implementing, on behalf of the country’s ministry of infrastructure and water management, according to its website.
A lot of infrastructure is being adapted as part of this programme, in addition to the bridges themselves, and routes are also being optimised. According to ProRail’s website, the aim of this major project, which has been running since 2014, is “to allow more passenger trains on busy routes as well as sufficient space for freight transport.”
The aim is to make the tracks “fit for current as well as future demand from both freight transport enterprises as well as from passenger service operators.”
Martin de Ruijter, a project manager with the enterprise Dura Vermeer, also addressed this goal when talking about the major task of replacing the bridges. “This renovation work will allow more trains to run from the station and cater to the growing number of passengers using the system.
Photo: Mammoet