Big steel girders help complete major east London viaduct

Some of the largest steel girders ever fabricated at Severfield’s Lostock facility have been used on east London’s 1.5km-long Barking Riverside Viaduct, which is nearing completion in readiness for a new railway line to open this Autumn.

Forming the final steel span of the viaduct, the two girders measured 42m-long x 3m-deep and each weighed 120t.

Because of site constraints, the installation required the use of one of the UK’s biggest mobile cranes, with a lifting capacity of 1,200t.

Crossing rail, road and river obstacles, the viaduct forms an integral element of the new 4.5km London Overground extension from Barking to the new Barking Riverside terminus, which will be situated in the main square of a development that will eventually contain more than 10,000 homes.

The viaduct’s longest spans – 400m in total length – have been completed with structural steelwork, with Severfield fabricating, supplying and installing 3,500t in total.

Transport for London’s (TfL) Head of Programme James Barrow says: “Steelwork was chosen for the northern end of the viaduct as it was the only material that could efficiently create the longer spans, up to 42m-long, needed to pass over the numerous obstacles.”

As well as creating the required long spans, the use of steel has allowed the project team to minimise disruption, as less time and equipment was needed to erect the steel part of the viaduct, as prefabricated girders were brought to site, ready to be erected during a series of weekend possessions.