Special steel structures for new bridges over the Vesdre River

Galère is busy rebuilding bridges over the Vesdre after the 2021 floods in the valley. This includes the pont de La Raye in Verviers, whose steel structure with a span of 26 m, without intermediate piers, and weighing 40 tons, was put in place after a long night's work. For the production and installation of the steel structure, Galère joined forces with expert Almex Metaal, which also took care of the steel structure for two other bridges.

"The three bridges we installed here framed Wallonia's post-flood relief plan in July 2021," explained Gert Neelen of Almex. "The bridges are over the Vesdre in the heavily affected area around Verviers. It involves three bridges: Francval, pont de Nasproué and pont de La Raye. We entered the tender with Galère. This allowed us to set up the most optimal way of working together from the beginning, which allowed us to win the bulky project. For Almex, the works have since been completed. The parapets were finished with a durable, hardwood handle and the provisions for the lighting and stainless steel nets were installed. Some civil/environmental work now remains on the sites, after which the whole thing will be finished. Almex was contacted for the execution of the steel structure. It is mainly about the bridge construction itself, but also the parapets were produced and installed by our care."

The construction of the Francval Bridge consisted of a metal caisson that formed the support for the center span. Says Neelen, "The piers of the original bridge - which was destroyed by the flood - were preserved and restored, so a close tolerance had to be taken into account, both in terms of shape and dimensions. The pont de Nasproué and pont de La Raye are composed of two box girders that form the main span. These longitudinal girders are connected at the level of the abutments by two transverse girders. The bridge deck consists of a concrete deck. The longitudinal girders are in turn equipped with internal stainless steel pipes in which the utilities were concealed."

The crossing to Wallonia has served Almex well. Neelen: "In the meantime, we were able to successfully complete the fifth bridge project. We now feel at home in Wallonia and there is a good click with Galère. The next project, the viaducts in La Louvière E42, is in the pipeline and we are also going to execute it together with Galère. Another nice challenge in the realization of the bridge structures was the limited space for assembly. Good coordination with the partner who carried out the vertical transport for us was therefore very important. In Francval, it really came down to centimeters." 

Reliable partner

Almex has a clear mission: to be a reliable partner in all areas of construction projects. Neelen: "We have already managed to successfully complete quite a number of bridge projects in the meantime and therefore have a great deal of experience and knowledge to be able to carry out such projects smoothly and correctly. Our business processes in both engineering and production and assembly are perfectly organized on this type of project. Our quality service is also organized in such a way that we can easily guarantee conformity with EN1090, standard specifications and qualiroute. In this way, we can unburden our customer to the maximum extent."

"We have already carried out several projects with very different challenges in the meantime," Neelen continues. "For example, we built a railroad bridge over the Albert Canal, but also, for example, a weather-resistant steel passerelle over a railroad in Sint-Agatha-Berchem. These are two completely different projects with very different perspectives in all areas. We therefore understand very well that each bridge project, regardless of its size, has its own specific challenges that we have to deal with."

Quotation = invoice

Another stock horse of Almex is that the tender is equal to the invoice. "This starts already at the tender stage, where we know very well what the client wants and what is described in the specifications. As a result, we are able to set a price that covers the full scope without any loose ends that give rise to annoying settlements. Almex sticks to the schedule. Any obstacles are resolved internally. We always place at the agreed upon time. Almex invests and develops so that we can do more and more ourselves internally. Even the final step in the production process, namely preservation, will be done entirely in-house from April 2024. We are currently building a state-of-the-art preservation hall in which we can blast, metallize and wet paint. In this way, we will be able to control price, delivery time and, above all, quality even much better."