Steelwork reaches milestone on Aberdeen bypass

Cleveland Bridge UK (CBUK) has reached the halfway mark of a major infrastructure project in Aberdeen that will create a 43km bypass around the western side of the city, using eight new steel bridges.

Darlington-based CBUK used bolster units to transport more than 300t of steel components, some measuring more than 40m-long, 300 miles to Aberdeen for the project’s fourth bridge, which its team installed across two days using a mobile crane with a 500t capacity.

The project will see the company fabricate and install eight permanent structures, manufactured using British-made steel, which will make up the Aberdeen Peripheral Bypass on behalf of the project’s main contractor, Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route Construction Joint Venture.

The Bypass, which is part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to improve transport in Aberdeen, will help to support continued and sustained economic growth, reduce congestion, improve safety, lower pollution in the city centre and enable further investment in public transport links.

CBUK expect to have installed all eight of the bridges by May 2017, ahead of the bypass being completed in the winter of 2017.

Cleveland Bridge UK Managing Director Chris Droogan said: “This is a major infrastructure project that will transform the road networks in Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland and we’re proud to be playing a major role.

“The fabrication and installation of our structures forms part of a complex and time-sensitive programme that has a very small margin for error. Our team has now completed more than half of the contract and with the other four structures at various stages of fabrication process we’re well ahead of schedule.”