Dismantling on the Vitim River
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Engineers from Reforma Construction Company have successfully applied an innovative method of freezing out the River Vitim to safely dismantle the supports of the unfinished bridge. This technology was used to create reinforced ice sites directly on the river surface that were capable of carrying heavy tracked machinery. The freezing-out method was previously used primarily for ship repair; its application in the construction industry, particularly in Siberian regions with their sharply continental climate, is a novel solution. The innovation consists in the capability of creating reinforced sites on non-freezing rivers, unlocking new opportunities for construction and infrastructure projects in the Arctic and Subarctic zones. |
Dismantling the supports of the uncompleted bridge on the River Vitim in the Irkutsk Region became the first case of this technology’s application. Engineers from Reforma Group of Construction Companies, implementing the project on facility teardown and removal, developed a process flow diagram for the dismantling upon studying the ice cover and calculating the loads and the freezing parameters. The process involved creating an ice site four meters wide around every support that stands on the bottom of the river and building access routes for construction machinery.
The river depth at the work site varied from three to four meters. To increase the ice site’s bearing capacity, timber decking was frozen into the ice.
Freezing the water was the only way of accelerating construction operations in the harsh climate.
During the operations, ice around the supports was regularly removed to create an ice road and a work site.
The freezing-out method could be considered an efficient tool not only for dismantling but also for renovation of river piers in regions with severe winter temperatures.
