Herring Bridge is being built by Bam Farrans Joint Venture under a £75m contract for Norfolk County Council. The overall budget is £121m.
Two leaves of 45 metres by 24 metres were installed during a 72 hour river possession which started at 8am on 21st March.
Each steel leaf weighed 770 tonnes plus a further 500 tonnes of concrete per leaf to create the counterweight. When both leaves are up there will be 50 metres of navigable channel between the two bascule chambers.
The leaves were lifted into place by the Matador 3 floating sheerleg crane, an 1800-tonne capacity barge crane owned by Bonn & Mees in the Netherlands.
The east leaf was installed during the first 24 hours into the closed position. The west leaf was installed during the next period, with both of the leaves raised to the open position on Thursday.
The construction stage started in January 2021 with the accommodation, enabling and demolition works. This was followed by the in river marine works and construction of the approach embankments which support two underpass and the bascule bridge (opening bridge). Once complete the local road network will be upgraded with a five-arm roundabout and dual carriageway.
The bridge will link the A47 at Harfrey’s roundabout to the port and the enterprise zone on the other side of the river.
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