In Zuidhorn, in the province of Groningen in the Netherlands, ProRail is replacing a railway bridge over the Van Starkenborghkanaal. The bridge is part of the line Groningen-Leeuwarden. The reasion for replacing the bridge is to improve navigability of the main water way Lemmer-Delfzijil.
In July 2017, the around 1600-ton -heavy main bridge part has been assembled by floating into position . After completion at the end of 2017, larger ships will be able to pass the route securely and without obstacles.
The load-bearing structure is a single-tracked arched bridge made of steel with main openings of 135 m and two foreland areas, each 20 m long. The deck consists of a concrete track slab placed on cross-griders with ballasted superstructure. The bridge is in total 175 m long and 28 m hight. The overall steel weight amounts to around 2000 tons.
Client: ProRail
Excution: Max Bögl Nederland B.V.
Design: SSF Ingenieure AG (steel superstructure and deck slab), ABT (substructures)
Construction period: 2016 – 2017
SSF services: Project planing and structural engineering
Time-lapse video of preassembly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFIylTPM9KY
Time-lapse video of floating into position
