But massive damage meant it had to be dismanteled. This was a job tailor-made for the experts from Krebs Korrosionsschutz GmbH and their Cometto SPMT self-propelled fleet.
Such a historic structure, the oldest revolving railway bridge in Germany, would not of course be demolished for no reason. But the danger of collapse proved simply to be too great. What was more, repairing the cracked upper span of the ageing structure was no longer possible. The Bremen Senate therefore decided to rebuild this 116-metre bridge. Approval for the demolition work was issued without delay so that the port blockade could be resolved quickly.
Dismantling and scrapping
Krebs Korrosionsschutz GmbH put forward a suitable concept for this in order to professionally disassemble and dispose of the north floodgate bridge in line with strict environmental regulations. The experts had already demonstrated their skills in other complex dismantling projects and were now also awarded the contract to scrap the bridge in Bremerhaven.
The bridge was towed on a barge to Lubmin via the Kiel Canal. Once there, the 1,000-ton section was lowered from the barge using 36 Cometto SPMT self-propelled modular axle lines and two 202 kW power packs.
Setting down by SPMT axle stroke
The MSPE self-propelled modular axle lines set the bridge down on “elephant feet” at the recycling site using the hydraulic axle stroke. The workers then ignited their cutting torches to start disassembly. Subsequently, the steel was fed into the blast furnace for the production of new iron. This would be used again in a “second life” as a bridge to provide a trouble-free connection for decades.