Installation of beams on the overpass at the Port of Gdańsk has ended
Installation of beams on one of the four road overpasses being constructed in the Port of Gdańsk has ended. The works are being carried out at an impressive rate – the foundation stone was laid on November 15. Despite unfavourable weather conditions, the installation itself lasted two days.
The overpasses are part of the investment “Development and modernization of the road and railway network in the External Port in Gdańsk” carried out by NDI from Sopot for the Port of Gdańsk.
The WD-4 overpass will lead traffic to the reconstructed two-lane Kontenerowa street. It runs over the tracks of the railway line in the External Port. Its span, 17.44 m, is adapted to the location of the tracks and the road, which are beneath. The length is 41.10 m and another parameter, the so-called clear span, is 16.76 m. The overpass is designed as two single-span structures with a bridge, made from prefabricated pre-stressed beams of T-type. Among others, 1300 m3 of concrete and 210 tons of steel will be used for the construction.
“We have installed 24 pre-stressed, prefabricated beams of T18 type with a length of 18 m and a weight of about 12 tons.”, says Paweł Ciomek, Head of Bridge Works at NDI. “13 on the right line and 11 on the left line. The beams are the main supporting structure of the load-bearing structure slab. On them, a reinforced concrete slab with a thickness of 24 cm will be made. To install it, we used a crane with a lifting capacity of 100 tons, and the beams were set with an accuracy of up to 1 cm.
The WD-4 bridge itself, due to adverse ground conditions, was located indirectly on nearly 20-meter high stilts topped with girts. Its construction required the reconstruction of existing underground utilities. The overpass will be illuminated and will have a pedestrian-bicycle lane for easy commute.
“Currently, we are working on the next overpass WD-3.”, says Jacek Szymanski, Contract Director. “We have already done abutments and pillars. We are planning to mount beams in March. We can say that, at this point, the works are ahead of schedule.” When it comes to road and bridge works, the progress at the end of January is at about 30%.
As part of the expansion project of the road-railway network in the External Port, carried out by NDI for the Port of Gdańsk, the following streets will be rebuilt: Portowa, Poinca, Kontenerowa and Budowniczych Portu Półncocnego, with a total length of 5.6 km. 4 new overpasses will be constructed, and the existing 2 will be dismantled (including the one over the active railway one and the second over the unit of transmission fuel pipes PERN, LOTOS and Naftport). The project will involve an additional tract to the DCT terminal, new tracks to coal terminals, as well as a modern rail traffic control system. It will also involve the construction of a small buffer parking lot for trucks– the first in that part of the Port.
“Reconstruction of the road-railway layout is one of the two large projects co-funded by the UE. The second is the modernization of quays and deepening of the fairway. Modern infrastructure is our priority, because only in this way we can meet the demands of the market. The fact that work is ahead of schedule makes us very happy. It also gives us confidence that we have chosen a reliable contractor.”, says Łukasz Greinke, President of the Management Board of the Port of Gdańsk.
The new road-rail system with a length of 9.4 km (including 16 new junctions) will also act as facilities for the future Central Port, thanks to which transhipment in the Port of Gdańsk may reach 100 million tons per year. The contract value is almost 176 million PLN. The project will be completed by the end of 2020.
