FEATURE
Construction of the Boyne Bridge
Nigel King
Environmental constraints prevented this very large cable-stayed bridge from being assembled by normal
techniques. It had to be put together on one side and launched across the valley.
Ireland’s largest cable stay bridge is under
construction in the peaceful Boyne Valley on
the outskirts of Drogheda, an historic town
situated 30 miles north of Dublin. This
landmark steel structure will carry the M1
motorway linking Dublin and Belfast across
the River Boyne.
The contractor for the € 34m project is SIAC
Cleveland Bridge Joint Venture, consisting of
Irish contractor SIAC Construction Ltd. and
Darlington based Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd.
The completed Boyne Bridge will consist of an
asymmetric 56 cable stayed structure with a
main span of 170m across the two channels of
the river. A series of shorter approach spans
constructed on piers carry the bridge over the
northern slopes of the river valley.
Design
The client, Meath County Council, and its
consultant, Northconsult, were determined to
deliver a structure of aesthetic and technical
merit. An innovative feature of the design is
the GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) enclosure
which surrounds and protects the steelwork of
the superstr ucture whilst providing an
aerodynamically and aesthetically enhanced
profile. The detailed design continued the
innovation with the use of a tubular steel
space frame within the GRP enclosure to
support the concrete deck slab. The tenders
for the contract were invited on the basis of
this design and SIAC Cleveland Bridge Joint
Venture submitted the winning bid.
At the time of tender it was realised that the
innovative space frame design still had
significant technical, cost and time risks
attached to it. In order to address these risks,
Cleveland Bridge and its internal design
consultant, Dorman Long Technology, began
to develop an alternative design based on the
use of a combination of twin longitudinal plate
girders and cross girders.
Throughout the tender period, a considerable
amount of effort was put into deriving the best
method of erecting the cable-stayed
superstructure. Ground level access into the
main span was prohibited for environmental
reasons, thus r uling out any support or
delivery of material from below. Difficulties
were envisaged with the adoption of the
traditional progressive cantilever method
normally used for cable stayed bridges, by
erecting the tubular steelwork piece-small or
in sub-assembled units. This led to the
innovative method of assembling the main and
back span deck behind the southern abutment
and launching it across the river.
By the time the client was ready to place a
contract for the Boyne Bridge, the alternative
design was completed in order to present it for
consideration. The scheme had advantages of
maximum off-site fabrication under controlled
conditions and reduced technical, cost and
time risk. However, the appearance remained
unaltered as all changes were within the GRP
enclosure. The innovative launch scheme was
still viable and was proposed as an integral
part of the design. The proposals proved
attractive to the client and were accepted early
in the contract.
Being in control of the erection scheme and
permanent works design allowed the
designers to optimise the sections of the
longitudinal girders by choosing the stress
condition for the girders at the end of the
launch and the finished cable stay loads. All
design work was done in-house with a small
team of engineers.
Launching
It was proposed to launch the assembled main
and back span deck steelwork, weighing 1,600
tonnes and 210m in length, through the A-
frame pylon and across the river to meet the
north deck. The north deck would be erected
independently prior to the launch.
The development of the launch scheme
considered various options for the rolling
support of the steelwork behind the abutment
and at the pylon, along with those for
positioning the temporary cable stay
attachments and strand jacks. Detailed
operational and risk assessments resulted in
the selection of the following arrangements:
• Multi-axle trailers carrying, driving and
steering the rear end of the steelwork on the
approach to the southern abutment.
• Rollers fixed to the steelwork running on
steel tracks along the southern abutment
and recycled as the launch progressed.
• Rollers fixed to the pylon cross beam over
which the girders passed.
• Lateral guide systems at the souther n
abutment and pylon.
• Temporary cable stays attached at ²⁄₅ and ⁴⁄₅
points on the main span with strand jacks
mounted and operated at deck level.
• A hauling line running from the launch
front to a fixed point behind the northern
abutment and operated by strand jacks.
To facilitate the launch temporary works, an
area of approach road, 160m in length, was
prepared with compacted stone behind the
southern abutment. A series of steel support
stillages were set up to the pre load camber of
the completed deck. The pre-fabricated
longitudinal and cross girders were shipped
from Cleveland Bridge and set up on the
stillages.
At the souther n abutment and pylon
crossbeam, temporary steel posts were cast
into the concrete works to support the deck in
both lateral and horizontal movement. On the
FEATURE
north deck, the hauling line jacking system
was cast into the concrete deck and anchored
by means of embedded blocks behind the
northern abutment.
Prior to launch operations, a series of
checking points were set up along the deck to
monitor the geometry of the deck at any stage.
The pylon verticality was also checked for
deflection at each stage.
Once the deck was pulled past the southern
abutment, the temporary beams were installed
to enable the whole deck to be lowered down
into the final position at the souther n
abutment. With the aid of two ‘A’ frames as
support, the deck was jacked down and then
pulled back into the final position. After
lowering down, the north deck was jacked
back on the pier bearings to align with the
launched steelwork. The final north and south
deck connections were then welded.
Control of the launch
A step-by-step non-linear structural analysis
produced the detailed step-by-step
adjustments required at the strand jacks to
control the launch prog ress whilst
maintaining acceptable stresses in the
ste elwork. These were included with a
comprehensive method statement and the
detailed temporary works drawings.
All designs were independently checked and
verified and a design team presence on site
throughout the launch ensured accurate
implementation. The check surveys
undertaken at regular intervals throughout the
launch showed excellent agreement with
predicted profiles.
Cable installation
The final involvement of the design team was
during permanent cable stay installation.
Control of deck geometry during cable
installation is one of the key features of this
form of structure. Completion of the steelwork
prior to any deck slab or cable work had the
advantage of eliminating the potential errors
in constructing the required unstressed girder
shape usually present when erecting piece by
piece in cantilever. Nevertheless considerable
analytical effort was put into the prediction of
geometry, cable loads and deck stresses and
their sensitivity to variables such as
temperature, weight errors and geometric
construction tolerances.
Analysis of the surveys following cable
tensioning was completed in the same
morning allowing adjustments, if any, to be
made that afternoon with no break in the
construction work. Again the comparisons
between actual and predicted geometry and
cable loads were excellent.
Completion
The launch of the back and main span deck
was completed successfully, followed by
concreting of the deck. The in-situ concrete
deck slab was poured incrementally in
conjunction with the installation of the
permanent cable stays. Installation of the
barriers and asphalting, etc. is now well
underway and the bridge is due to be
completed by the end of April 2003.
Nigel King is a Project Manager with
Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd.
The following people contributed to
this article:
Simon Hill, Survey Manager, Cleveland Bridge
UK Ltd.
David Taylor, Principal Engineer, Dorman
Long Technology.