Hardcore Crushing Ltd were delighted to be chosen by Eric Wright Civil Engineering to help undertake the complex bridge removal and demolition / dismantling works at Hyde, Manchester.
The historic disused railway bridge spanned the busy A57 Hyde Road and created a ‘bottle – neck’ reducing a 300m stretch of the road from four lanes to two; restricting traffic flow significantly at peak times.
The plan was to undertake a ‘military- style’ operation during extremely short timescale; closing the road over the weekend and then assembling one of the largest mobile cranes in the UK to lift the bridge from its current position.
The initial plan was to protect the carriageway surface and lift the bridge into the road and then dismantle over
a nightshift and get the road back open, but this was cancelled due to high winds and so an alternative approach was developed to lift the bridge deck down onto a portion of waste ground adjacent to the carriageway
, where we then had a little more time and ‘breathing – space’ to dismantle the steel structure into manageable pieces and removed all the materials from site.
The crane was assembled and set up on the Saturday and the bridge lifted down safely on
the Sunday and then we dismantled the whole 70 tonne structure and removed all materials from site, and we were off site by Tuesday.
The bridge was a mixture of composite steel beams; cross – bracing, and soffit decking, which was all riveted; welded, and generally bound together by 100 + years of compacted r ust, and as with all things of that era, it was built to last, so taking it apart required significant effort and the crushing power of a 35 tonne demolition specification hydraulic excavator equipped with specialist dismantling attachments for cutting and handling heavy metals.
Eric Wright Civil Engineering will then go on to create the road improvement works and install a new wider bridge to replace the link for cyclists and pedestrians.
We are pleased to report that the demolition works were carried out on programme and under budget.
