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The Fine Art of Moving a Bridge (E-M1 images)

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RoelHendrickx

RoelHendrickx

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I just posted online a new documentary gallery.

All images made with two E-M1 cameras on which I had the following lenses mounted :

-> first camera over my one shoulder: alternating between Oly 12-40mm F2.8 PRO and the old 7-14 mm F4 that I still have from my "fullscale" FT days.

-> second camera over the other shoulder: mostly the Oly 40-150mm F2.8 PRO, but also sometimes Rokinon 7.5mm fisheye.

Never flash, all available light only.

The gallery is a narrative impression of some days spent in close proximity to the logistical operation involved in moving a very large steel bridge from its place of assembly to the final location downstream.

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The gallery covers three days of meticulous execution of a well designed plan. Impressive engineering and work by all companies and workforce involved.

The shifts of workers and engineers worked round the clock for three day. I was not there all the time (gotta eat and sleep). But I still was able to cover most keys moments.

In the next post, I will detail some explanation of the steps I have witnessed.

But here is the link to the full Gallery :

The Fine Art of Moving a Bridge by Roel Hendrickx (Dec 2017)

If I have been successful, you will enjoy this as a visual narrative of the event.

As an outsider, I aimed for a unique perspective on the operation, different from the "news flash" approach of the press and also different from the technical imagery by the company's own people who used a camera from time to time.

My aim was to show :

a) the grandiose engineering feat of the operation, with emphasis on the poetic beauty of the bridge itself in different stages, and of the impressive hardware and logistics involved;

b) but also to include images of some of the workforce, who seem insignificantly small in the scale of the event, but without whose work and precision, such an operation is impossible.

Some sample images that give you an idea what to expect in the full gallery :



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If you liked these, check out the full gallery : Fine Art of Moving a Bridge

C&C are always encouraged.

In the next post (first reply to this one, I will include a "full" eyewitness report of the steps that were involved in the operation. At least the ones I saw with my own eyes (probably a lot more behind the scenes...)

Thanks for looking.

See you all in 2018 for more photographic adventures.

--
Roel Hendrickx
lots of images: http://www.roelh.zenfolio.com
 
I have spent the best part of three days at different vantage points close to the action (and a bit further away), to provide a visual narrative of not just the key moments but also of smaller aspects.

The whole process lasted all weekend and all steps were slow, deliberate and precise.

Link to gallery : The Fine Art of Moving a Bridge

The shifts of workers and engineers worked round the clock for 72 hours. I was not there all the time (gotta eat and sleep at least a few hours every night). But I still was able to cover most keys moments.

Friday all day: final stages of steel construction, after which the bridge was liberated from all parafernalia and lifted slightly with the two rolling "caterpillars". (Unfortunately I did not see that maneuvring of the special transport under the bridge due to other engagements.)

Saturday early: road closed and ramps being built across the road from the assembly site to the water’s edge. This took many hours with a large crane and other heavy equipment. Meanwhile, final construction touch-ups on the bridge itself.

Saturday mid afternoon: pontoon arrives and the ramps are finalized with large metal roadways over the sand and wooden beams, straight from canalside onto the pontoon)... and the long slow crawl starts (I did not catch that either, must have been early evening).

Saturday night: crawl onto pontoon in progress. Barely noticeable movement. To compensate for weight, the pontoons tanks were voided slowly. I saw the bridge cross the edge between land and water.

I went home for sleep around 1.00 AM, when the bridge was halfway onto the pontoon.

Sunday early: at first light (8.00 AM) I drove to the final site where the concrete bridgeheads were waiting, expecting that the pontoon would already be moored there.

It wasn’t yet (hurrah!) and I caught its last 500 meters of sailing and arrival with sunrise peeping under the bridge arriving, still low on the stacks of red blocks that are used for lifting the whole weight.

At night, the bridge had been transferred from the crawling transport to the blocks on the pontoon and the crawlers had been driven back off onland.

Sunday before dawn the ramps at the construction site had already been taken away and road cleaning in progress. I caught that final sweep too

Then I went for lunch because the hoisting of the bridge to final working height would take at least 5-6 hours. One block of 60 cm added each 12 minutes; 3 meters per hour; 15 meters total.

Sunday afternoon and evening: After my arrival back, it took another two hours (no more lifting; that was done) to secure everything for the 90 degrees turn on the water and the slow move back to where the concrete bridge supports were waiting.

That maneuver also took two hours and I photographed it from many angles (not on the pontoon though: I had needed a life vest and specific authorization for that...)

I left for home long after sunset, with the bridge hanging 1 or 2 meters above its final place. Resecuring the pontoon, lowering the bridge by slowly removing the top blocks and sailing away the pontoon was going to take another few hours. I had seen enough and was bitterly cold.

I hope that the photo series works without the epilogue of those final stages. My photo climax shows the bridge hovering over its supports.

I may add some more shots after the works are fully completed, but in essence, my aim was to show the logistical operation of the move itself, not the whole construction.

Thanks for looking. Full gallery : The Fine Art of Moving a Bridge

--
Roel Hendrickx
lots of images: http://www.roelh.zenfolio.com
 
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Love the series of shots.
Right up my street! I work in the construction sector, but nothing on this scale.

I'm sure we're all in awe of these huge civil engineering wonders. ("Ok gents & ladies, we're sitting down at this table with a blank sheet of paper, and we're going to work out how to do this job...")

I particularly like the dusk/nighttime shots, and the UWA 7.5mm shots.

Thanks for posting them.
 
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stateit said:
Love the series of shots.
Right up my street! I work in the construction sector, but nothing on this scale.
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construction is always fascinating
stateit said:
I'm sure we're all in awe of these huge civil engineering wonders. ("Ok gents & ladies, we're sitting down at this table with a blank sheet of paper, and we're going to work out how to do this job...")
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this was a venture in which different areas of expertise (construction; heavy lifting; water transport) were combined flawlessly.
stateit said:
I particularly like the dusk/nighttime shots, and the UWA 7.5mm shots.
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thanks
stateit said:
Thanks for posting them.
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my pleasure
 
Awesome series! Thanks for the great read!
 
This kind of coordinated effort is so interesting. I've been involved in a few 2:00am house moves through city streets but this is whole lot more than that.

Great photography, thank you so much for sharing.
 
Roel, thanks for sharing.

I've only begun to go through the entire series, but I can see you made a fine job of it, as usual. I used to work with heavy steel, and you're right about the level of skill and coordination required to bring such large projects together successfully. It only takes one person's inattention to screw up hundreds of man-hours of work, or worse.

If this kind of work interests you, I think you've created an excellent calling card for gaining access to other sites. Some of your shots appear to have required permission to approach so closely, such as this one . Did you develop a relationship with the workers?
 
Grandiose engineering and grandiose documentary!

Thanks for sharing!
 
Just terrific thanks Roel.

All the best to you and yours for the Christmas break.
 
453C said:
Roel, thanks for sharing.

I've only begun to go through the entire series, but I can see you made a fine job of it, as usual.
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Thank you for the kind words.
453C said:
I used to work with heavy steel, and you're right about the level of skill and coordination required to bring such large projects together successfully. It only takes one person's inattention to screw up hundreds of man-hours of work, or worse.
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That is the vibe that I got throughout the whole operation: nothing hasty here, everything double and triple checked. Imagine several thousand tonnes of steel tipping over...
453C said:
If this kind of work interests you, I think you've created an excellent calling card for gaining access to other sites.
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Hmm.
453C said:
Some of your shots appear to have required permission to approach so closely, such as this one .
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That one was actually not frightfully close. It is a shot at 40 mm focal length. I was not under the bridge, but just outside where it would land if it did indeed tip over...
453C said:
Did you develop a relationship with the workers?
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Yes, mostly with the hands-on guys. The people in charge were more nervous and thus harder to approach. I chatted with welders and riggers and crane drivers and forklift drivers etc, during the first day and that made me a familiar face on the site, which helped to be a fly on the wall, on the more crucial following days.
 
Another wonderful effort and result, Roel. I am always fascinated by these projects, as I am an engineer myself and have designed some lift lugs and attachments for some very heavy lifts in my early days. So combining photography with engineering and construction efforts has always been a favorite theme of mine.

I made one pass through the entire portfolio for the project. My only recommendation for an addition is a sketch or a diagram of both the starting location and the ending location, showing the physical locations of the bridge/road/waterways. Kind of a plot plan of each. I had kind of a can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees response initially, not being familiar with the overall technique or plan.

That said, I enjoyed the close ups of the workers and the equipment (the trees), especially because of my engineering and construction background, but I got a little disoriented without a plot plan or diagram.

As usual, the photos are stunning and impeccable, in my opinion. I've said it before and I'll say it again, you are a photographer, and you have added your artistic talent to an engineering project. Well done. I feel like I opened a surprise Christmas present this morning, going through your work while waiting for my family to wake up. The present is much appreciated.

Best regards,

Joe
 
Joe Lynch said:
Another wonderful effort and result, Roel. I am always fascinated by these projects, as I am an engineer myself and have designed some lift lugs and attachments for some very heavy lifts in my early days. So combining photography with engineering and construction efforts has always been a favorite theme of mine.
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Cool.
Joe Lynch said:
I made one pass through the entire portfolio for the project. My only recommendation for an addition is a sketch or a diagram of both the starting location and the ending location, showing the physical locations of the bridge/road/waterways. Kind of a plot plan of each. I had kind of a can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees response initially, not being familiar with the overall technique or plan.
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This is a valid response and much appreciated. For me personally, of course, the orientation of the move (down the canal for roughly 1.5 miles from the place of assembly to the final destination) is clear.

And actually, I don't really need such information to enjoy the images.

But I understand fully that some extra info of location etc may be welcome.

Here is the website of the client "De Vlaamse Waterweg", and more specifically the page dedicated to this bridge operation (replacement of an old low stone bridge by a higher steel one) :

https://www.vlaamsewaterweg.be/brug-van-den-azijn

The bridge from which I made some of my shots of the assembly area, is called "Hoogmolenbrug". The assembly area shows as woodland on Google Earth. Part of that was razed for the operation and also for the (later) replacement of Hoogmolenbrug.

The bridge replaced is called "Azijnbrug". Both over the Albert Canal near Antwerp. The place of the 90° turn maneuver is right next to the old harbour docks in Merksem.

I guess I could try to make a Google Earth screenshot of the area or even a Google Earth animated movie of the distance travelled (not on the canal, but on the road right next to it). I may give that a try but I am not familiar with it.
Joe Lynch said:
That said, I enjoyed the close ups of the workers and the equipment (the trees), especially because of my engineering and construction background, but I got a little disoriented without a plot plan or diagram.
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Those blue "trees" between the curve of the bridge and its road surface are to counter the tension from the move. At its final place the bridge rests on two bridgeheads at the end. The road surface is prevented from "sagging" by the curve above and the steel reinforcement between them. But for the move, the applied pressure was the opposite : ends of the road surface bending downwards and upwards force at the two points where the caterpillars and later the hoisting blocks push into the bridge's bottom side.
Joe Lynch said:
As usual, the photos are stunning and impeccable,
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Thank you.
Joe Lynch said:
in my opinion. I've said it before and I'll say it again, you are a photographer, and you have added your artistic talent to an engineering project.
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Thank you, because that was exactly my intention.
Joe Lynch said:
Well done. I feel like I opened a surprise Christmas present this morning, going through your work while waiting for my family to wake up. The present is much appreciated.
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And your comments is likewise.
Joe Lynch said:
Best regards,

Joe
Click to expand...
 
An especially epic series of images Roel. Some exceptional single images in this set as well.

Hope you and your family have a great holiday season.

Andrew
 
Fascinating Roel! What an amazing amount of planning and engineering that went into the construction and moving it to its final place. You captured it well.
 
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