Skip to main content

Sykes Pumps ballasting expertise adds weight to Forth float-outs

UK hire specialist, Sykes Pumps, is playing a vital role in delivering Scotland’s biggest transport infrastructure project in a generation - The Forth Replacement Crossing (FRC). Once completed later this year, the new road bridge will be the longest three-tower cable-stayed bridge in the world. Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC) consortium is using 42,000 tonnes of steel. Getting all that steel out into the Firth of Forth is a delicate operation. The project involves transferring 7,000tonne se
June 17, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Sykes Pumps at work on Forth Replacement Crossing
UK hire specialist, 8165 Sykes Pumps, is playing a vital role in delivering Scotland’s biggest transport infrastructure project in a generation - The Forth Replacement Crossing (FRC).

Once completed later this year, the new road bridge will be the longest three-tower cable-stayed bridge in the world. Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC) consortium is using 42,000 tonnes of steel.

Getting all that steel out into the Firth of Forth is a delicate operation. The project involves transferring 7,000tonne sections of prefabricated steel and concrete deck onto float-out barges using SPMT (self-propelled modular transport) vehicles.

For that reason, Sykes Pumps is playing a vital role in managing the ballast of the float-out operation being delivered by heavy lifting and engineered transport specialist, Sarens.

Sykes Pumps has provided Sarens with 50 of its general purpose GP 150M diesel pump.

The GP 150M, with the Sykes Univac vacuum system, is used wherever there's a need for positive self-priming. The pump primes and re-primes automatically from dry and is powered by a 20kW Lister engine with many optional configurations.

Sykes Pumps worked with Sarens to calculate the ballast requirements for the load-on and load-off manoeuvres. It also invested in additional fittings and butterfly valves for the pumps to provide dual suction and discharge, reducing the number of pumps and personnel required on site and optimising efficiency for the ballasting operation.

“We are using two load out vessels for the project, each with 25 pumps,” says Alister Smith, project manager at Sarens. “We have worked with Sykes Pumps several times before and knew that the company could ensure that water pumped into and out of the vessels’ tank compartments is calculated accurately.”

Sykes Pumps’ float-outs expert, Richard Box, said he could advise the client on dual suction and discharge pumping, enhancing the efficiency of the ballasting operation and ensuring the float-outs are completed safely in line with the construction programme.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Mersey Gateway Project reaches half-way point across the Mersey
    March 10, 2017
    The Mersey Gateway project in England has passed a significant milestone, with over half of the main bridge deck stretching across the River Mersey. Work to install stay cables on the main bridge also passed a key point, with installation of the 31st 150m long cable – the halfway point for stay cable installations on the pylon. When complete, 146 stay cables will support the 1km-long reinforced concrete bridge, with a combined load-bearing weight of more than 53,000tonnes. “We’re now more than 50
  • New M90 surfacing in the UK gain praise
    January 8, 2013
    Early evaluation of surfacing work on the M90 at Rosyth – the first major application of Scotland’s new TS2010 specification – has earned positive praise. Transport Scotland’s determination to obtain pavement that is durable, long lasting and safe (especially in early life) is clearly apparent on the M90 just north of the Forth Road Bridge. Here surfacing has been carried out this spring to TS2010, a tough new specification designed to ensure thin surfacing pavements that work. And the initial prognosis is
  • Urgent repairs to Forth Rd bridge
    March 19, 2012
    Urgent repairs will continue on the Forth Road Bridge in east central Scotland this weekend after work the previous weekend was disrupted by strong winds. The bridge authority has also confirmed that a further three weekends of traffic restrictions will be required over the following weeks. On Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 March traffic will be restricted to a single lane in each direction from 3am until 12noon.
  • Steel sealed on Stonecutters Bridge
    February 6, 2012
    The stone mastic asphalt surface being laid on the bridge deck. The Stonecutters Bridge in Hong Kong, the second longest spanning cable stayed bridge in the world, is a dual three-lane crossing of the Rambler Channel. It utilises 33,500tonnes of structural steel in the bridge deck; 32,000m3 of concrete in the towers and 65 steel deck units relying on 224 cables. Effectively protecting the megastructure's deck from the weather extremes (monsoon rains and extreme heat in the summer) and the high levels of tra