Projects - Design a new bridge deck

At the location of this lifting bridge over the River Hull the river is tidal and navigable. In order to allow shipping to pass the bridge lifts on a regular basis. The road across the bridge is an important route for local traffic.

We were commissioned by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to design a new bridge deck to replace the existing timber sleeper deck.

The bridge is made up of aluminium sections and it was proposed to use aluminium in the new deck to avoid the problems associated with corrosion if dissimilar metals were used.

It was critical that the new bridge deck could be fitted quickly to minimise the length of the bridge closure and also the weight of the new deck must be similar to the existing weight to ensure that the balance of the bridge was not disturbed.

The new deck was designed in segments to allow offsite prefabrication. The sections were designed to be fixed to the existing structure with 'Lindapters' to avoid the need for on site drilling.

Site work commenced on Monday morning and the existing deck was removed. Seven deck sections were lifted into place and welded together to form the continuous deck. As work progressed above the lindapters were fitted below.

The welded joints were then prepared and the gritted epoxy resin surfacing installed at the joints to give a smooth uniform non slip surface.