Sankey Bridge, Warrington

S Evans were called on to safely remove a condemned swing bridge situated over Sankey Canal, Warrington, the canal runs around 15miles starting from St Helens and ends by joining the river Mersey. The canal which opened in 1757 was used to transport coal down to the river Mersey and into Liverpool has been closed since 1963, leaving the canal and some of its redundant bridges neglected.

Due to the bridge’s location between a live railway line and busy road leading into Warrington City Centre careful measures were considered to keep disruptions for the public to a minimum.

The team opted for a cut and lift method using a 130te crane and a pontoon situated beneath the bridge deck to ensure no debris would fall into the canal during the removal process. The bridge was cut into a total of 4 sections first removing the steel frame used to rotate the bridge when in use, the bridge deck was then hot cut into 2 larger sections which were lifted and loaded on to our waiting transport. Openings were formed in the final section allowing access to the bearings and base of the structure, further hot cutting techniques were used to release the bridge deck from the base and safely lifted away. All sections were transported to be processed off site and recycled.

The bridge was successfully removed with no accidents or injuries and to the client’s satisfaction.