Zambezi Heavy-Haulage Warren Truss Bridge

The crossing carries fully-laden mining haulage in a river valley with a 6 m seasonal water-level swing and no crane access from the riverbed for five months of the year. Every component had to be liftable from the deck itself.

We designed for incremental launching: the truss was assembled on the south bank and launched across temporary bearings, eliminating in-river falsework entirely. S460ML plate reduced section mass by 17 % against an S355 equivalent, which brought each launch segment inside the capacity of the deck-mounted crane. Full-scale trial assembly in our Germiston yard verified geometry before a single component shipped.

The bridge was launched inside a single dry season. Trial assembly caught two detailing conflicts in the yard that would have cost an estimated six weeks had they been discovered on site.