The bridge was honoured with the Austrian Award for International Consulting and the European Steel Bridge Award.
The Botlek Bridge is a lifting bridge with two moveable spans designed as combined road and railway bridge. The bridge is an integral part of the A15 motorway from Vaanplein to Maasvlakte in the harbour of Rotterdam. The total project was realized in the framework of a PPP (Design Build Finance Maintenance) contract.
The ambitious bridge construction project took place under difficult conditions. The setting up of both the foundation and the piers in water as well as the limited space to the existing lifting bridge represented a special challenge for design and execution.
In normal operation the new bridge provides two navigable openings with a width of 87 m and a clearance height of 14.6 m each as well as a crossing of the river “Oude Maas” for motorway and railway traffic. In lifted condition a clearance of 45.6 m is reached and therefore the passage of deep-sea container vessels is enabled. The lifting weight of each bridge span amounts to 5,000 tons with a lifting time of 110 seconds. In order to achieve a minimum energy input for the lifting procedures, a fully balanced system with counterweights of 2x 2,500 tons is used.
Awards
Austrian Award for International Consulting 2015
European Steel Bridge Awards 2016