Aquamonix instrumental in ‘Darlington Project Upgrade’

The Darlington Upgrade Project consisted of installing various bridges, including manoeuvring a 3200-tonne bridge safely and precisely into its final position. The bridge and move are pending a Guinness world record, in being slated as the longest complete three span steel bridge moved in the world at 190 meters long!

Aquamonix have played an instrumental role in the movement.  We installed strain gauges, tilt and level sensors on the spans which allowed Gateway South to coordinate the move using SPMTs. The sensor array and real-time display was developed in-house by Craig Bates. Craig is an AIS head engineer and project manager.

 

 

The AIS team here at Aquamonix were tasked with some ground-breaking challenges. This included proposing methods to measure, stress, twist, torsion, and deflection. All these measurements were being recorded and displayed several times per second. The measurements were displayed on a locally mirrored website. The display included alarms that triggered traffic light poles amid the structure to assist in warning drivers of the SPMT’s, as well as show the relevant section on the mimic display.

 

 

Aquamonix was praised for enabling quicker than expected move times, along with real time, in-field data to verify, and provided post analysis of the move.

Check out the installation of the 2nd major bridge here!

We look forward to the finalisation of the project in 2019.