e-mosty September 2018 Vessels and Equipment Used for Bridge Construction | Page 18

Bøkfjord Bridge, Norway
In 2017, the German steel builder Schachtbau
Nordhausen Stahlbau GmbH, Wilhelmshaven delivered a
120 metre long road bridge to a location well above the
Arctic Circle, close to the Norwegian town Kirkenes. The
bridge is called Bøkfjord Bridge and crosses the River
Paatsjoki at its mouth into the Bøkfjord, in Sør-Varanger
municipality in Finnmark, Norway.
The transport of the 760-ton bridge from the Schachtbau
site in Germany up to and including the installation of the
bridge in Norway was carried out by two subsidiaries of
Wagenborg, namely Wagenborg Towage and Wagenborg
Nedlift.
After arrival in the port of Kirkenes, the pontoon was
moored in the fjord and the bridge was jacked to the
required height. Then the bridge was turned 90 degrees
and positioned and lowered onto its foundations.
On 28 th September 2017 the bridge was opened for
traffic by the Norwegian Minister of Transport, Ketil
Solvik-Olsen and the Russian Vice minister of Transport
Sergey Aristov, who also marked the opening of other
new roads on E105 between Kirkenes and Zapolyarny,
Russia.
In Wilhelmshaven, the 120m long bridge was loaded on
the pontoon ‘Wagenborg Barge 8’ by 48 axle-lines SPMTs
and taken in tow by the British tug ‘MTS Vanquish’ for a
1,520 nautical mile (2,815km) journey to North-Norway.
↑ Figure 34: ´MTS Vanquish´ swing ´Wagenborg Barge 8´
Source: www.wagenborg.com
↙ VIDEO 2: Assembly, loading and transportation of the bridge
Figure 33: STAN Tug ´MTS Vanquish´
Photo Credit: Damen
↘ VIDEO 3: Transport and installation of the bridge
2
https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=wovaJnQAtNo&featur
e=youtu.be
3
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=3RycSQME-rg
3/2018