Halfway there!
●
Each one of the strands needs to be installed individually.
Stay cable strands and anchor samples are on display at the Mersey Gateway visitor centre located at the Catalyst Science Discovery Centre in Widnes.
Halton Council chiefs are due to receive a project update on Thursday, March 16, where they will hear the completion of the bridge and approach roads is on course to open this autumn.
Gareth Stuart, Merseylink ● Work continuing on the Mersey Gateway bridge construction joint venture project director, hailed the latest milestones.
He said: “These are two mas- sive achievements for the project.
“The deck and the cables are integral to the design of the Mersey Gateway bridge, and will make it instantly recogniseable as one of the most impressive-looking crossings in the UK.
“We’re now more than 50% t through this highly visual phase of the Mersey Gateway construction, where people will be able to see the stay cables connected to the bridge d deck as it emerges across the river week by week.”
George Moir, Merseylink’s design manager, explained how the 810 miles of strands were installed. COUNCIL chiefs are to receive an update on progress on the Mersey Gateway bridge.
A report published ahead of today’s (Thursday, March 16) executive board meeting at the Municipal Building in Widnes said the project remains on course for the opening of the main bridge and approach roads in autumn.
It said there are 771 staff working on the site in Runcorn and Widnes including the main contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers.
So far, 653 Halton residents have been employed on the scheme during construction.
There were 223 staff from Runcorn and Widnes working on the project in November.
The report said the Mersey Gateway Visitors Centre in Widnes at the Catalyst Science And Discovery Centre has had 13,903 visitors since it opened in February 2015 and the sister facility in Runcorn Shopping Centre has had 6,209 visitors, totalling 20,112 by December 2016.
He said: “It’s gone well so far, and we’re installing around six stays per week from the three pylons.
“The first two strands are threaded through the stay pipe then the tower crane lifts the pipe up to the anchor point in the upper pylon where the top ends of the strands are fixed into place.
“The bottom ends of the strands are then attached to the anchor point in the bridge deck and stressed using a hydraulic system.
“This enables us to get the correct level of tension needed to support that segment of bridge deck.
“We then use a winch system through the stay pipe to winch the remaining strands up one by one.
“Once all of the strands have been installed they sit in parallel inside the stay pipe to form the stay cable.”
Cllr Rob Polhill, Halton Borough Council leader, said: “Reaching the halfway point on the bridge deck, and installing half of the south pylon’s stay cables are both huge milestones for the project.
“It’s been fascinating to watch the works in the estuary progress, and we’re now set to see truly incredible scenes as our new Mersey Gateway bridge enters its final phases of construction.
“Every day the landscape of Halton is changing and I would encourage everyone to catch a glimpse of the work in progress.”
In terms of worker safety, there have been 156 accident book entries with no notifiable events and no major injuries from the start of the project to December 2016, while there where 116 near misses and ‘learning events’.
Four Reporting Of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (Riddor) incidents were logged with preventative measures identified.
Three were underground cable or mains strikes and the other was a slip, trip of fall.
Health And Safety Executive reports were completed and preventative measures identified.
The report said that to date, 4,872 workplace safety inductions had taken place.
It added that drug and alcohol testing take place for all plant operators and those in high-risk roles.
The Mersey Gateway bridge construction consortium Merseylink has said construction of the bridge is more than 50% complete.