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

  • Micro surfacing the Brooklyn Bridge with Bergkamps’ M210 paver
    May 16, 2018
    A major job for micro surfacing took place on the Brooklyn Bridge near New York. It was the third time in Ken Messina’s career that he would provide micro surfacing for the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, built in 1883. Messina, as president of New Jersey-based Asphalt Paving Systems (APS), knew only too well the challenges that lay ahead. And there were many. There would be only a brief window of opportunity for paving, with lane closures starting at 10pm and ending at 5am. The cool, humid atmosphere would a
  • Cable works starts on Gordie Howe Bridge
    February 10, 2023
    The tolled six-lane bridge over the Detroit River, between Windsor in Canada and Detroit in the US, is costing around US$4.2 billion with an opening date likely in 2025.
  • New Midtown Tunnel open in Virginia
    January 30, 2017
    A project to construct the second Midtown Tunnel link in the US state of Virginia alongside the original connection has taken an important step forward – Mike Woof writes Commuters in the US state of Virginia will be pleased that the new Midtown Tunnel is now open to traffic, as it will help to boost capacity and cut congestion on the busy US 58 route connecting Norfolk and Portsmouth. The 1.13km tunnel link has been built to link with the interchange at Brambleton Avenue and Hampton Boulevard in Norfolk
  • Modern formwork systems - fast, flexible, safe
    February 21, 2012
    Speed of erection, safety, cost-efficiency and flexibility are among the attributes of modern formwork systems. Modern formwork and scaffolding systems are attractive in particular for their speed of erection, safety, cost-efficiency and flexibility.