‘Infinity’ bridge in Dubai opens

The Infinity bridge in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has officially opened up to traffic following a construction that involved the lifting of 40 steel segments of its infinity arch, some of which weighed 130 tonnes.

The Infinity bridge, built by Besix Construct, is 300m long, 22m wide and sits 15.5m high above the water level. Its infinity arch rises higher; some 42m above the creek.

The bridge was built at a cost of AED 394 million (US$105 million) and is part of Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority’s Shindagha Corridor Improvement project, which covers a 13km-long road network.

For its construction, 40 steel segments of its infinity arch, ranging in weight up to 130 tonnes, needed to be installed over the Dubai creek and above the bridge deck, which could not support a suitably sized crane.

Heavy lift specialist Mammoet realised that the mid bridge segments required tandem lifts by two cranes positioned on opposite banks of the creek with a working radius of 140m.

These tandem lifts were performed with the CC 8800-1 handling the majority of the weight – in fact, it could position segments on the opposite side of the bridge, thanks to its main boom length and a large lifting radius.

The entire operation was completed over a period of six months, with the last piece of the infinity arch was installed in May this year.

“Working in partnership with Aertssen, we provided equipment with sufficient capacity and reach, along with specialist engineering to support the operation of the CC 8800-1 to maximise the overall utilisation and its capacity,” said Somnath Bhattacharjee, Crane Operations Manager for Mammoet’s UAE Branch.

“Each lift required an extraordinary level of precision as the tolerances for joining the segments were a matter of millimeters,” he added.

The bridge can accommodate 24,000 vehicles per hour in both directions and features a combined three-metre-wide track for pedestrians and cyclists.