Transportation of the Crimea Bridge’s motor vehicle arch across the Kerch Strait has begun. According to the Crimean Bridge information center, the floating supports left the construction site in the morning of 11 October 2017 for the fairway of the Kerch-Yenikalsky canal.
The floating system carrying the arch is being prepared for niching between the Crimea Bridge’s support structures. This phase will take several hours with the entire operation of placing the arch in its design position to take up to three days.
Dredging works had been performed on the route planned for the transportation of the floating system to the depth of 4 to 8 meters.
“Having transported, lifted and installed the railway arch in August we acquired certain experience. So, between the two floating operations we carried out extensive engineering work and step-by-step analyses of all operations. The process of the second arch installation is not easier. It requires the highest concentration of all those involved in the process,” said Dmitri Kondakov, Deputy Director General of SGM-Most.
The process involves more than 100 specialists – crewmembers, engineers, navigation and positioning experts, electromechanics, divers, etc.
The arch was placed on the floating system after favorable weather was confirmed for the coming three days. On-line monitoring of weather conditions is carried out throughout the operation.
The transport and installation operation of the Crimea Bridge arches is described as a unique technological operation performed for the first time ever in construction history of Russia. Yet, that operation is based on extensive experience and best practices accumulated by bridge-building specialists, both in Russia and worldwide.