We are FCC - Nº4

After more than three and a half years of construction, the Mersey Gateway Brid- ge has opened to traffic. FCC Construc- ción is a partner of the Merseylink Civil Contractors Joint Venture (MCCJV) that also includes the British company Kier and the South Korean Samsung, which made it possible for this bridge to beco- me a reality. The toll bridge is part of a new 9.2 ki- lometre road network undertaken by Halton Borough Council, connecting the towns of Runcorn and Widnes, near Li- verpool, with the six-lane cable-stayed structure as its centrepiece. The purpo- se of the works, which have been recog- nised by KPMG as one of the ‘Top 100 infrastructure projects around the globe’, is to alleviate congestion on the Silver Jubilee Bridge as well as connecting the area to the main motorway network in the north west of England. The bridge itself has a total length of 2,248m with a central section of approxi- mately 1km and two viaducts. It has four spans supported from three pylons in the Mersey estuary. The iconic structure has a unique design whereby the 80m high central pylon is shorter than the two ou- ter pylons, which are 110m (north pylon) and 125m (south pylon). 810 miles of ca- bles connect these pylons to the bridge deck. The new road network includes a total of 12 new bridges and seven new or upgraded junctions, with 127,415m3 of concrete used across the works. Limi- ting environmental impact of the project was also a major concern throughout its construction with 1,423,225 tonnes of previously contaminated materials reco- vered and re-used. To deliver a project of such importance the Merseylink consortium counted with the support of the FCC Group, specifi- cally, the Technical Services (Structures and Geotechnics) and the specialised Company BBR. After the success of the Enniskillen Hos- pital in Northern Ireland, the completion of the Mersey Gateway Bridge leaves FCC well placed to bid for further work in the market. As Pablo Colio, CEO of FCC Group said, “We hope to use the knowle- dge we have gained of the market and this experience to win new opportunities in the UK and benefit its citizens in the future. The key to our success has been the collaboration with project partners, clients, and the local community. The FCC Group offers more than 117 years’ experience and a great team of profes- sionals, plus the technology that sets us apart and which benefits each of the pro- jects in which are involved”. The project will benefit both the Liver- pool region, with a population of more than 1.6 million inhabitants, as well as the northwest area of England. United Kingdom Gateway Bridge Experience in bridge construction FCC has extensive experience in buil- ding bridges. In the last 15 years, the Citizen Services Group has built over one million square metres of bridges of all types using all modern construction methods. It has built the Alamillo Bri- dge (Seville), a bridge in Saxony (Ger- many), the Otopeni bridge (Bucharest), the Azud del Oro Bridge (Valencia), the Basarab viaduct (Romania) and the San Marcos viaduct (Mexico), the second ta- llest in the world. It also built one of the most important connection hubs in the European Union, the bridge connecting Vidin (Bulgaria) and Calafat (Romania). The prime ministers of both countries at- tended the inauguration. Important bridges are currently under construction, such as the Gerald Des- pond Bridge in Long Beach Harbour, Los Angeles. VIDEO LINK construction B U S I N E S S B U S I N E S S 21