On Monday 25 July, Red7Marine, working as a specialist sub-contractor to Knights Brown, installed the first of four spans that will make up the new Dukes Meadows Bridge in Chiswick.
The £4M bridge, being put in place for the London Borough of Hounslow, passes under the Barnes rail bridge, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to continue on the Thames Path without having to detour via the road.
Departing Tilbury at 3am, Red7Marine’s Haven SeaStabler, along with bridge span 2, journeyed 36 miles along the Thames passing under some of London’s most iconic bridge structures. Our team worked closely with all involved, ensuring passage plans and navigational risk assessments were in place.
The barge arrived in Chiswick just after 11am.The team then had to wait until high tide at 1pm before the installation could take place. The span installed (Span 2) is 30m long and weighs 45t, and needed to be positioned on two piers in the Thames. The piers are comprised of 900mm-diameter bored piles, driven around 19m into the riverbed.
At 1pm as high tide was reached, the span had risen enough to sit over the piers. The locating pins were dropped into position as the ballasted tanks released water to maintain stability as the weight of the span was transferred to the piers. It could then be fixed into place.
Kristen Branford, Managing Director at Red7Marine comments: “It was a proud moment to watch our team install the Span 2 at Dukes Meadows in July. It was extremely well planned and executed and a great achievement for all involved.
This was a great project for our team to be involved with, working closely with Knights Brown and the design team featuring Cowi, Moxon Design, BWE, Ramboll and CGI.”
Knights Brown will install the remaining bridge sections via land and on 9 November, the bridge will open to the public.
