Case Studies: Traveling by Rail

By: Roads & Bridges

The new railway bridge in Brussels was built for the Belgian railway system by Victor Buyck Steel Construction.

The bridge was ready to be moved to its final site at the end of October. Because of the continuous use of the railways over which the bridge had to be placed and the fact that the railway traffic had to be stopped during the movement, the builder was given only 48 hours to move the bridge to its proper place.

Enerpac was asked to guide the movement of the railway bridge with its Synchronous Lifting System, a system that has been used all over the world in a variety of applications.

Eight temporary steel pillars were built to support the viaduct parts during the movement. Each pillar had been provided with a so-called “draw beam,” a pivoting steel cross with heavy springs to compensate the force, the angular displacement and the bending of the lower beam of the bridge. Beneath each draw beam two hydraulic cylinders were mounted. The primary function of these cylinders was to keep the structure at the correct height. In order to reduce the resistance as much as possible during the movement, Teflon glide plates were applied between the draw beam and the lower beam.

Additionally, a launching nose (beak) was provided on the front side of the bridge to evenly distribute the forces and to limit the distortion during the movement.

This monitoring system consisted of a total of 32 measuring points (28 of which were used) on an equal number of hydraulic cylinders, a central pump unit, plc-control and a read out system showing all displacements and forces.