Case study · bridges & bespoke engineering
Rolling Bridge
moved in one piece.
A ballasted pontoon and bespoke turntable lifted, rotated and carried Paddington Basin’s Rolling Bridge away by water for hydraulic repairs.
The project
Remove the bridge
without dismantling it.
Paddington Basin’s Rolling Bridge needed to be removed so its hydraulic rams could be repaired. It had originally been installed from North Wharf Road before the surrounding canalside buildings were constructed, leaving no equivalent road route for its removal.
Dismantling the structure into smaller sections on site was possible, but would have added work and interfaces at both removal and reinstatement.
WHH modified a 10m work pontoon with a bespoke turntable. Ballasting lowered the pontoon beneath the bridge; pumping out the ballast then raised the structure clear of its mounts before the turntable rotated it lengthways for the canal journey.
The constraint
The original access route
no longer existed.
The method had to address the full working environment:
- Surrounding development blocked road removal
- The bridge was wider than the navigation when carried crossways
- A controlled lift was needed without a large landside crane
- The same method had to work in reverse for reinstatement
The WHH response
A method built
around the site.
Vessels, plant and movements were combined around the project sequence rather than treated as separate hire items.
Bespoke turntable
A rotating support allowed the bridge to be lifted in its installed orientation and then aligned with the canal.
Ballast-controlled lift
Water ballast lowered the pontoon under the structure; de-ballasting provided the controlled vertical movement to lift it clear.
One-piece transport
Once rotated, the complete bridge travelled by canal to Willowtree Marina for transfer to road transport.
Reversible method
The sequence was repeated in reverse when the refurbished bridge returned to Paddington Basin.
The result
One piece out.
One piece back.
The bridge was removed and reinstated as a complete structure, avoiding dismantling and reassembly at the constrained basin site.
The operation is a clear example of WHH adapting a simple floating platform into project-specific lifting and transport plant around an unusual load.
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