Piling foundations for Medway Viaduct. It is Europe’s longest high-speed railway bridge and carries the Channel Tunnel Rail Link
A heavy structure like a bridge is usually built on piles if the ground beneath its base does not have an adequate weight-bearing capacity to support the structure. The piled foundation becomes an integral part of the structure that carries and transfers the load of the structure to stable weight-bearing ground, which may be located at some depth below the ground surface. Deep foundation rotary bored piles are constructed by using a huge drilling rig mounted on a crawler crane (often with a combined weight of 40-80 tonnes). This rig will drill vertically into the ground inside a circular steel casing that has been driven down using a special vibrating hammer to provide temporary support to the excavation. The excavated ‘spoil’ is brought up periodically on the drill screw and is spun or shaken off. When a pile has been excavated to the design depth, a steel reinforced cage is inserted and the pile is filled with concrete. The viaduct carrying the Channel Tunnel Rail Link over the River Medway estuary near Rochester in Kent is a uniquely styled bridge. The km long, 25-span pre-stressed concrete box girder viaduct has become a symbol for the new railway and the 152 m main span has extended the limit for high-speed train crossings. It was required to sit comfortably in its river environment and together with its two companion road bridges for the M2 motorway. The viaduct’s design was approved by the Royal Fine Arts Commission and received the Concrete Society Award for Civil Engineering in 2002. Building the bridge presented some complex engineering challenges. Concrete sections of rail-bed 40 m in length and weighing 1000 tonnes were assembled sequentially in a launch area on either side of the river, then gently slid on stainless steel bearings to be fixed on top of piers spanning the river banks. Pairs of 900-tonne capacity hydraulic jacks were used pushed the sections into place.
Size: 3310px × 3310px
Location: Medway Crossing, Kent, UK.
Photo credit: © qaphotos.com / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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