First of three Preston Western Distributor bridges installed

Cleveland Bridge has completed the installation of the first of a trio of bridge  that will form key elements of a major infrastructure project in Lancashire.

The 250m-long Lea Viaduct is part of the Lancashire City Council’s £200M Preston Western Distributor project, which will link the A583 with the M55 motorway and is due to open in 2023.

The 2,607t steel viaduct will support the road infrastructure project’s objective of creating access to new housing and business developments, supporting economic growth of the area, while also increasing capacity on the existing local road network.

Working in partnership with main contractor Costain and project engineers Jacobs and Atkins, Cleveland Bridge designed and fabricated the bridge in five 50m-long sections, each made up of five pairs of girders to form a crossing over the Lancaster Canal and the Preston to Blackpool railway line.

The structure was installed during a six-week programme utilising a 600t-capacity crawler crane.

Over the next three months, the company will be installing the Becconsall Bridge and the Savick Brook Viaduct.

Andy Limbert, Head of UK Projects at Cleveland Bridge UK, said: “We are experienced at undertaking installations in hard-to-reach rural locations and through the close collaborative relationship between our engineers and supply chain partners we successfully executed the delivery of the viaduct.

“We also had the challenge of the tight possession windows we had to install across an active railway line and the canal, which we operated well within to ensure the project was delivered on time and without any disruption to water or rail traffic.”