Ale lifted the biggest and heaviest bridge sections in Spain

ALE has lifted the biggest and heaviest bridge sections as part of the final stages of the Cadiz Bridge construction project in Spain.

At 3,082m long and 31-34m wide, the new bridge is being built over the bay of Cadiz with the aim of connecting Cadiz with Puerto Real, the North area of old town of Cadiz. The bridge will provide greater access and minimize traffic, whilst offer greater business opportunities to work with the container terminal and port.

ALE identified two elements of the project, the transportation and lifting of the cabled sections, as well as the transportation, load-out and lifting of the removal span.
So far, ALE have installed 50 bridge sections varying in weight and size, with lengths from 10m – 52m and weights between 150t – 1055t.

To perform these transportation and lifting operations, ALE has utilized SPMT axles for onshore transportation, four mobile gantry structures, eight HLS2000 strand-jack units and eight SLS2000 strand jack units, eight skid-shoes SS500, eight push-pull units SS300 and 16 push-pull units SS150.

ALE supplied 168 axle lines of SPMT to perform the load-out of the heaviest section. After this load-out, the final operations consisted of lifting and shifting the deck using complex steel structures and strand jack units HLS8500, with a total lifting capacity of 6,800t, whilst controlling the ballasting of the barge where the biggest section was transported.

ALE Project Engineers Pablo Ramos Atoche and Alvaro Saez, have been leading this monumental project for over two years. Alvaro Saez, who co-ordinated the transportation, load-out and lifting operation for the heaviest, removable section, said: “We are delighted to be involved in this landmark project. We have now lifted the heaviest section of the bridge, the removable span, which measured 150m long and weighed 4,000t, and working to install the final six bridge sections.”

ALE now have six sections left to install and the project is expected to complete in May.