Red7Marine has been recently involved in supporting the construction of a new €258M bridge over the Kiel Canal in Rendsburg, Germany.
10 years ago, severe damage was found on the Rader High Bridge, which originally opened in 1972. Traffic has increased extensively over the last few years, and it is expected 63,000 vehicles will be travelling on this section of road by 2035.
As a result of this, DEGES, the state agency responsible for Germany’s road network, contracted Implenia Construction GmbH, in joint venture with Plauen Stahl Technologie GmbH and Zwickauer Sonderstahlbau GmbH, to build a new bridge adjacent to the existing one. The overall project will involve the demolition of the existing bridge as well as the construction of a second bridge in separate lots allowing for 3 three lanes and hard shoulder in each direction. The overall project is due to be finished by 2031.
With a target completion date at the end of 2026 for the first bridge, there was a tight preparation and planning period in which Red7Marine was involved with. Red7Marine has been involved with the project since December 2022, identifying the 250t Haven Seariser 4 and 400t Haven SeaSeven jack-up barges would be ideally suited to support the construction activities. The jack-up barges were towed from the East Coast of England, equipped with modular legs to enable them to pass over high-voltage power lines, to site in Germany.
Ahead of the mobilisation, Red7Marine’s team of engineers worked closely with Implenia to understand the temporary works requirements for the project. This included carrying out detailed deck plans for each jack-up platform to ensure stability during floating and working conditions.
Red7Marine’s Haven Seaseven was the primary barge conducting the piling activities for the project. The barge was equipped with 70t of temporary works, designed and fabricated by Red7Marine’s team of engineers in conjunction with design partners, MintMech. These temporary works comprised of a bull rail and removable cantilever platform that enabled a 100t crane with a 30t casing oscillator attachment to protrude off the side of the barge and to carry out the drilling operations and pile installations for the bridge foundations.
Red7Marine’s Haven Seariser 4 was equipped with a 250t crane on deck with a luffing jib to assist the project in all required lift activities, most notably the +30m reinforcement cage and the permanent casing.
During the extraction of the temporary casings, the casing oscillator applied up to 230t of vertical forces and a 2800kNm torsional force into the barge, made possible by the engineering work from all involved.
Careful planning and engineering expertise during the tender stage were vital to push the barge’s capacity to its limits, ensuring a smooth and efficient operation.
Red7Marine’s Managing Director, Kristen Branford comments: “We are delighted with the outcome of this project with Implenia. Our success is in part due to Red7Marine’s turn-key, start-to-finish approach from the enquiry stage through to on-site operations, with engineering and fabrication in between, which allows us to support our clients at all levels.
It was also great to witness the engineering innovations on-site being led by Implenia, with temporary steel work and strand jack systems to lift caissons into place from the flat tops on site.
It has been a delight to be involved in this important infrastructure project which will provide essential international transport and trade links between Germany and its neighbours, and the opportunity to work with new client, Implenia, who we hope to work on more exciting projects with in the future.”
Implenia project manager Sönke von Fintel praised Red7Marine’s contribution, stating, “Working together with Red7Marine on this challenging project has been a great pleasure. High level engineering from all team members involved from Red7Marine, MintMech and Implenia led to a technical solution perfectly suited for the construction methodology foreseen for the bridge’s waterside foundations. Thank you Red7Marine for the good cooperation, we look forward to working together again in the future.”
