The “Nhat Tan Bridge” is expected to open in October 2014, after 60 months of construction,
Five Linden Comansa tower cranes are being used in a major bridge project in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Crossing the Red River, the project consists of a 1500 metre bridge, while in total the cable-stayed bridge and approach viaduct have a length of 3,080m.
The main bridge, to be complated by the end of this year, will feature five A-shaped concrete pylons, to which the clamping cables will be tied. The construction of these pylons, located every 300 metres along the bridge, has been done by five 21LC550 18t tower cranes, supplied to Sumitomo Mitsui Construction by Asia-Ted, a dealer of Linden Comansa in Singapore.
The initial assembly of the five cranes, as well as some jacking-up operations, was carried out by a team of Linden Comansa’s technicians, who exceptionally moved to Hanoi from Spain to attend this sophisticated operation.
All pylons are practically of similar dimensions, so the cranes were erected with the same settings: jib length of 50 metres and 11 tower sections, to reach a freestanding height of 63.8 metres. In addition, each one of the cranes was erected on foundations over four steel piles driven to the ground, giving the crane a further height of between 5 and 11 metres, depending on the location of the pylon.
The erection of three of the five cranes was especially complicated, as the pylons were completely surrounded by the water of the Red River. The lifting of the sections had to be done by crawler cranes located in barges in the river, which made the maneuvers more difficult the days in which waters flow down at high speed. In addition, the need to transport material and sections on barge demanded a large planning and slowed down the erections tasks.
The five tower cranes have worked at the jobsite since 2009, raising all the necessary materials for the construction of the pylons, such as formwork, prefabricated rebar cages, concrete, etc. The 21LC550 have also helped to unroll and place the cables of the bridge, as well as to raise the cable anchor boxes to the top of the pylons. These 29 red pieces of anchor boxes per pylon, which have been directly embedded into the concrete, weight a maximum of 18 tons per piece, forcing the cranes to employ 100% of its maximum load capacity.
Project manager Hitoshi Yamaji, from Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co, expressed his satisfaction with the performance of the cranes: IHITSHI hit”The five 21LC550 tower crane worked well during our pylon construction without any trouble. In addition, the maintenance and technical support by their well trained technicians were satisfactory. We got the best decision by choosing Linden Comansa cranes for our construction works; otherwise, I think it would have been difficult for us to complete our project on time”.
A joint venture formed by Japanese firms IHI Infrastructure Systems and Sumitomo Mitsui Construction, is in charge of the construction of the “Nhat Tan Bridge”, which is also known as the Vietnam-Japan Friendship Bridge.
The “Nhat Tan Bridge” is expected to open in October 2014, after 60 months of construction, just in time for the 60th Year Anniversary of Hanoi Capital Liberation Day.