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Pont Gustave-Flaubert is a vertical-lift bridge constructed over the River Seine in Rouen, France. The bridge is a lift bridge with the length of 120 meters and a height of 86 meters. Having ‘butterflies’ at the top of foundations this bridge provides passage for approximately 50,000 vehicles every day.
History
The crossing of Seine of Grand Quevilly and Petit Quevilly was chosen as route for bridge because of high proximity to residential and business areas of central Rouen. The contract for the construction of the bridge was sixty million Euros whereas the cost for entire project was 137 million Euros. The work began by June 2004 and took three years to complete. The project was first tested in April 2007 by lifting the bridge to let a barque vessel pass through. The bridge was opened for normal traffic in September 2008. The bridge is named after Gustave Flaubert, an influential French writer from Rouen.
Need of Hoist
A unique feature of this bridge is that it has two towers which stand at the height of 86 meters. It is significant that such huge structures need proper maintenance with occasional lifting in order to let vessels pass through. Having towers at such heights, it is highly inefficient to climb the stairs every time maintenance work is conducted.
Challenges
The project may sound simple at first as it is the installation of a hoist within the tower of a height of 86 meters. However, the work gets very challenging if there is not much room for the installation of a hoist inside in addition to other constraints such as:
- A required payload of 2000 kg with small space not enough for appropriate installation,
- Installation level not in inserting level,
- The Hoist should bear construction operations without taking any damage.
In order to install the hoist in a limited space, a special two tube mast integrated with special anchoring was used which was able to carry 2 ton hoist able to carry payload of 2000 kg. Man power and good handling were crucial for transportation of approx. 10 tons material of each hoist. All material was safely transported to the fitting level being shifted from one storey and then was successively used up in construction.
Construction work had to be carried out for months so a cage was created within the cage to avoid the hoist’s cage taking damage. A wood casing was customized so that only minor repair work was required on the removal of the casing.
The installation of both towers was done in shifts. After installation to a certain height the assembly team moved over to other tower while the other hoist was being used. Some project details are mentioned below
| Project Facts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hoist used | SC2000K | ||
| No. of Units Used | 4 | ||
| Payload Capacity |
2000 kg | ||
| Special Features |
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