| 49 HEB Construction: Beaumont Bridge The new 195m steel girder bridge will have two lanes for traffic and a two-metre shared pedestrian and cycle lane. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT “Contact Energy have been very helpful where they could be, but meeting the demands of the electricity grid is understandably their priority ,” Todd says. A further challenge thrown up by the varying flows of the Clutha River are the not-infrequent floods, which can see volumes leap from 400m3 to 1600m3 in just hours. The most complex part of the job turned out to be accessing an island in the river visible only during low river flows, and then building the bridge’s central pile on it. This required some bespoke temporary works developed by HEB’s Construction Manager Ryan Hickey, involving a 31m span truss - weighing 40t and capable of bearing the 84t weight of the drilling rig – from the bank to the island. The $25m Beaumont Bridge project got under way in late 2021, but keeping it up to schedule involved a battle against the impact of Covid. For a start the steel for the new bridge, about 50m downstream from the old one, was three months late in arriving, and then the pandemic slashed the normal workforce of 25-30 to barely half a dozen at times. Even so, by Christmas several major milestones had been ticked off, including the completion of the pile foundations, piers and abutments, and the curved steel bridge spans were gradually inching across the river. “As electricity demand rises between 6am and 7am the dam increases its generation to meet it. We then see the resultant sharp rise in the river level at the Beaumont Bridge around 10am each day.” Civil Structures • Earthworks • Geotechnical Works • Below Ground Services We can arrange and carry out all or part of your traf c management requirements, from a basic shoulder closure on a level one road, to lane closures with manual traf c controls on state highways. Road Safety Specialists Equipment Sales andHire Taane Royce | 021 720 162 www.tmsco.co.nz Est 1906 “The Earthmoving Specialists” Proud to undertake the Civil’s and Earthworks at Beaumont Bridge with HEB Construction Tony Smith MANAGER, HARLIWICH HOLDINGS LTD FREE PHONE: 0800 111 221 Offices in Roxburgh & Cromwell | Servicing all central Otago
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