Significant Progress at New Wear Crossing

The past 6 months have seen significant visible progress on the Farrans New Wear Crossing contract under the guiding hand of Project Director, Stephen McCaffrey.

In October, the first phase of the bridge deck, which was assembled on land immediately to the south of the river Wear, was pulled 120m towards and over the river in an operation that took less than ten hours to complete. This was a significant milestone for the project and was the result of extensive planning and preparation by the whole team. The bridge deck is being supported on a series of temporary supports that Farrans have designed and constructed within the river.

The deck is currently being extended on the launch platform to form the phase 2 deck structure. The phase 2 launch which is planned to take place in spring 2017, after the central pylon is erected, will involve moving the bridge deck which will be approximately 300m in length (almost 3 football fields long) and weighting approximately 4,750 tonnes (equivalent to 110 fully loaded articulated lorries) 187m (just under 2 football fields) north into its final position over the river. In the meantime Farrans are working hard to complete construction of two reinforced tusks to support the central pylon which is due to be delivered to site early in 2017. The pylon, weighing approximately 1800 tonnes (equivalent to 41 fully loaded articulated lorries) is just under 100m long (the length of a football pitch) and 36m wide (wide enough to span a 3 lane dual carriageway) will be delivered to site in one piece by barge before being erected into position.

At the beginning of December 2016 over 550,000 man hours have been safely completed on site at the start of December having worked 570 accident free days.

acknowledged the contribution of his team when he spoke recently to Northlink; “I’d like to thank the whole team for their hard work and commitment to date which has ensured this complex project has gone smoothly. Preparing for and constructing a major bridge out over the middle of the river is not easy and takes a lot of engineering and preparation. This is a very challenging and exciting project and is testament to the capability and expertise of Team Farrans!.”