King Lifting deployed a 350-tonne and a 300-tonne mobile telescopic crane to tandem lift a 47.5-metre footbridge over the River Kennet.
King Lifting was working for John Graham Construction, Reading Borough Council’s main contractor on its £26m South Reading bus rapid transit (BRT) scheme. The scheme aims to keep buses moving by allowing them to bypass pinch points on the A33.
The new bridge is designed to create space for an extended bus lane without taking away any carriageway from general traffic
Graham began works in early 2024. The footbridge was manoeuvred into place on Sunday 1st December. The scheme is set to be complete by late spring 2025.
Graham project manager James Murphy said: “The team has been committed the past few months to reach this significant milestone and it’s fantastic to see the bridge in place. Working in close collaboration with Reading Borough Council and our supply chain partners, we successfully managed the complex interfaces between temporary and permanent works, while coordinating with utility providers and statutory bodies.
“We are proud to have designed and constructed the abutments and installed the footbridge during a full road closure, ahead of traffic management constraints on the A33 as the Christmas period approaches.
“During the bridge lift, we also completed extensive surfacing works, installing approximately 4000 sqm of finished wearing course to the north of the bridge. By utilising the same road closure, we achieved significant programme savings and eliminated the need for additional road closures for our client. This required significant scarifying, as we removed the previous carriageway surface, then installed the new wearing course which involved the use of approximately 80 lorries throughout the road closure to complete these tasks simultaneously.”
