21 September 2015
Photo caption: Representatives from Halton Borough Council, Mersey Gateway Crossings Board and the Merseylink project team unveil the movable scaffolding system's new name.
Europe's longest bridge-building machine named in special launching ceremony as work starts on Mersey Gateway approach viaducts
The longest bridge-building machine in Europe has been named in a special ceremony to mark another key milestone for the Mersey Gateway Project.
In keeping with engineering tradition, construction consortium Merseylink named the movable scaffolding system (MSS) at a special launching event at Catalyst Trade Park in Widnes.
While most machines of this kind can only build bridge spans of up to 60 metres, the MSS for the Mersey Gateway Bridge was specially made so it is able to cast spans of up to 70 metres, making it the longest MSS in Europe.
Merseylink held a competition for staff to name the MSS, with the winning name ‘Trinity' submitted by Lynn Jeary, who works in the project's communications team.
Lynn officially named the MSS together with Merseylink's project director Richard Walker at the ceremony, which took place on site today (Monday 21 September 2015).
Lynn chose the name Trinity as she felt it symbolised the three bridge pylons and the three partners in the construction joint venture - Kier Infrastructure and Overseas Limited, Samsung C&T Corporation and FCC Construcción S.A.
As Merseylink is also sponsored by three major companies - Macquarie Capital, BBGI, and FCC - Trinity was deemed to be a perfect fit.
Martin Buckley, operations director at Merseylink, said:
"According to engineering tradition, a machine cannot start work until it is given a name, and the name is usually female. The tradition is carried on throughout the world as a sign of good luck for the project ahead.The competition really captured the imagination of our staff team and we've had some brilliant suggestions."
It has taken construction teams three months to assemble the bright orange machine. This is no mean feat considering it includes approximately 1,200 components, 3,000 actual parts, and is held together by over 60,000 bolts.
Now fully built, Trinity measures an impressive 157m long - the length of around one and a half football pitches - and weighs around 1,700 tonnes.
The MSS will now build the elevated road viaducts over the Mersey Estuary on both sides of the river, beginning with the north approach viaduct from the launch site at Catalyst Trade Park in Widnes.
Councillor Rob Polhill, leader of Halton Borough Council and chair of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said:
"This is a special day as it marks another key milestone for the Mersey Gateway Project.The size and scale of the MSS is truly spectacular and it's going to be fascinating to see Trinity in action in the estuary over the next few months."
The Merseylink Consortium brings together UK expertise with world leaders in major bridge building projects, to combine technology and best practice specifically for the Mersey Gateway Project.
You can see what the MSS will look like in action by watching Mersey Gateway flythrough video at:www.merseygateway.co.uk/flythrough
Ends
For further information please contact Chris Taylor or Karen Westcott at DTW on 01287 610 404 / 07949 287 356 / 07545 210 067 or emailchris@dtw.co.ukorkaren@dtw.co.uk.
Editors Notes
How the MSS works
The MSS acts as a giant concrete mould for the roadway or ‘deck' of the approach viaducts, which will be constructed in spans of approximately 70m.
The machine is locked onto the bridge piers and concrete is poured into the mould to cast a deck span. The equipment then moves along to cast the next span.
The process is repeated until all 11 bridge piers on the northern approach viaduct are connected.
It will then be dismantled and transported to Runcorn to connect the eight piers for the southern approach viaduct.
Each bridge span will take up two weeks to construct.
In total 22,800 cubic metres of concrete will be used to build the 19 spans, enough to fill nine Olympic sized swimming pools.
About the project
The Mersey Gateway Project will be one of the largest infrastructure initiatives in the UK over the coming years. Last year Mersey Gateway was identified as one of the UK government's Top 40 priority projects in theNational Infrastructure Planand it has been recognised by KPMG as one of the‘Top 100 infrastructure projects around the globe'.
Its features will include:
a 1,000m long cable stay bridge consisting of four spans supported from three towers in the estuary;
a unique design where the 80m high central tower will be shorter than the two outer towers, which will be 110m (north tower) and 125m (south tower) ;
a total length (including the bridge and approach viaducts) of 2.13km;
a deck carrying six lanes of traffic (three in each direction) with a speed limit of 60mph;
up to 30 supporting piers carrying it across the approach viaducts; and
a curved approach at each end of the bridge giving varying views of its unique design and maximising its visual impact.
You can find out more about the project atwww.merseygateway.co.uk.
About the Merseylink consortium
The Merseylink Consortium was appointed by Halton Borough Council as the project company earlier this year on a 30-year contract to design, build, finance and operate the project.
Its equity partners are Macquarie Capital Group Limited, Bilfinger Berger Global Infrastucture, and FCC Construcción. The construction joint venture, made up of Kier Infrastructure and Overseas Limited, Samsung C&T Corporation and FCC Construcción S.A.
Sanef S.A. will deliver and operate the tolling solution for the consortium.