Roller Bearings Replacement
Client
Highways Agency
Principle Contractor
Birse Civils Ltd
Value
£240,000
Contract Duration
8 weeks
Works Completed
April 2011
The M27 motorway is located in Hampshire and runs from Southampton to Portsmouth.
Freyssinet was appointed by Birse Civils Ltd to carry out the scheduled replacement of roller bearings to 3no overbridges near Southampton – Swanick Lane, Botley Road and Whitely Lane.
Bespoke temporary works were designed and installed by Freyssinet. The bridge deck was jacked to release the load from the existing bearings, the existing roller bearings were then replaced with new mechanical bearings, which were designed and manufactured by Freyssinet Ltd’s own in-house team at its Telford factory.
As the main criteria for these works was to minimise the time period for traffic management on the M27, in order to expedite the replacement process, the existing upper and lower cast in plates were reused removing the curing process of new concrete & grout from the installation process. A Highways Agency Approved protective coating system was installed on these plates.
As the existing upper and lower cast in plates were found not be horizontal or parallel to each other, compound taper plates were manufactured to create horizontal and parallel bearing surfaces; these plates were installed to very tight tolerances to enable the accurate installation of the new mechanical bearings.
The works were completed ahead of a very tight programme, on budget and to the satisfaction of Birse Civils and the Highways Agency.
1 Bespoke temporary works were designed and installed by Freyssinet
2 Jacking the bridge deck to allow the roller bearings replacement
3 New mechanical bearings being installed
4 New bearings in place