Southend Pier gets ‘Big Lift’
How do you create a large building at the end of a pier when it is too fragile to handle direct construction work? This was the issue surrounding the placing of a new culture centre onto the UK’s Victorian Southend Pier.
The fragile condition of the old Southend Pier meant that the construction of the building was to be carried out 20 miles away at Tilbury Docks in Essex, Paul Verschure of GPS Marine told Maritime Journal. The building, which had to be completed before the start of the Olympics this summer, had to be designed from the beginning with a final lift in mind with stresses and load points carefully considered.
Main contractors Kier and subcontractors GPS Marine were faced with the challenge of the ‘Big Lift’. The overall project proved difficult enough. The building, which weighed 200 tonnes and measured 20m by 30m,had to be lifted in one piece from the barge to the pier using a sheerleg crane.
Further, the transportation window was limited to four hours. Fair weather was needed as the barge delivered the building 20 miles to the delicate Southend Pier and marine traffic had to be restricted by the Port of London Authority to prevent wash.
The culture centre was then ready to be lowered onto the prepared framework. The contractors’ boats were not allowed to moor up against the pier itself and had to keep to a distance of 1.5m in order not to touch it.
With the final positioning critical to within centimetres, there was no room for error as two special designed guide points made sure the building was in the right position.
Happily, all went according to plan. The next step will see the glass added by Kier when the structure has settled.
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