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

  • Almost gone: Canada’s old Port Mann Bridge deconstructed
    August 14, 2015
    Three years ago a welder’s cut halved Canada’s old Port Mann Bridge. David Arminas reports from the banks of the Fraser River. By the time this issue of World Highways reaches you, one of Canada’s iconic steel arch bridges will be a shadow of its former self. It’s been a three-year demolition job since the first cut across the deck of the old Port Mann Bridge just outside the city of Vancouver on Canada’s Pacific coast. A new 10-lane 2.2km Port Mann Bridge opened in 2012 (see box). It runs parallel to the o
  • Float positioning for Bandra Worli Bridges
    May 29, 2024
    In Mumbai, India, two steel bridges have been barged to site and then lifted into position as part of the Mumbai Coastal Road-Bandra Worli Sea Link project.
  • Formwork developments in bridge construction
    February 23, 2012
    Major infrastructure projects worldwide are relying on innovative formwork solutions for speed and safety as Patrick Smith reports. The 970m long cable-stayed Golden Ears Bridge crossing the Fraser River in Vancouver, Canada, is the core element of a six-lane, highway project near the Canadian west coast.
  • Maybe Hire takes on Whorlton Bridge
    March 14, 2025
    For refurbishment of the old English bridge, a temporary cable crane structure - designed by CaSE Civil & Structural Engineering - used a range of Mabey Hire’s propping equipment, including the Mass 50, System 160 and Mat 125 products.