NETWORK RAIL, WHALEY BRIDGE

SPMT CONFIGURATION OVERCOMES LOCATION CHALLENGES

Sometimes, the space restrictions of a working environment mean a straightforward move does not involve moving straight forwards. This is where Osprey excels – we have the insights gained from carrying out many rail infrastructure installations for a wide variety of clients, including Alun Griffiths, J. Murphy & Sons, Dyer and Butler, and BAM Nuttall.

Every installation is different, but we work with our clients to build in as many efficiencies as possible – always prioritising safety, and always focusing on reducing possession times and disruptions to local communities. Here’s a brief synopsis of our work at Whaley Bridge in November 2021.

WHALEY BRIDGE

At Whaley Bridge, in Derbyshire, the town’s Reservoir Road bridge was ageing and needing to be replaced. We supported J Murphy & Sons Limited, using two SPMT (Self-Propelled Modular Transporter) set-ups, each one driven individually, to remove each one of the two half-bridge sections. Each one weighed around 20 tonnes.

Once the half-bridge sections had been removed, we then installed two new U-Decks weighing 60 tonnes each. Our Project Manager, Ross Milne. “The maximum width we could put on the road was about the same as the trailers themselves, which is about 5.5m, as we needed to move through a residential area. Each section was about 12m long, so we fitted a turntable to the top of each SPMT configuration.”

This was probably the first time this SPMT configuration had been used for a rail bridge replacement, but it’s the kind of solution we can now transfer to other projects, in other sectors.