The new bridge will serve as a connection between the two parts of the Olympic Village, located in Saint-Denis and Île-Saint-Denis, easing the movement of athletes during the Olympic Games and the traffic of personal mobility vehicles between the two areas once the event is over.
For the installation of this 120-meter-long, 1,500-ton bridge, Sarens used its twin barge Karel-Victor to move the bridge from its client Eiffage Métal's facilities to its final location in the future Olympic Village in Paris.
Sarens, world leader in heavy lifting, engineered transport and crane rental, has completed the installation of the new bridge that will link the two banks of the Village des Athletes between Saint-Denis and Île-Saint-Denis, as part of the infrastructure construction work for the Paris Olympic Games, to be held in the summer of 2024.
This is the second bridge recently installed in the French capital for the Olympics, after work was completed in September to install the walkway crossing the A1 freeway between the Olympic Aquatics Center and the Stade de France in Saint Denis. The 1,500-tons bridge in the Village des Athletes will help athletes to move between the two banks of the Seine River, especially towards the Cité du Cinéma, both on foot and using personal mobility vehicles, and will facilitate access to the new eco-district that will be created by taking advantage of the Village's buildings once the Games are over.
Eiffage Métal assembled the metal structure of the new 120-meter-long bridge at the Gennevilliers quay, where it was picked up by the Sarens team and loaded onto SPMTs (Self Propelled Modular Transport) for subsequent loading onto the twin Karel-Victor barges, which had been equipped with support structures, ballasting pumps, winches and jacking equipment to ensure the work and its effectiveness.
Once on the barges, the Sarens technical team proceeded to remove the SPMTs in order to reduce their total height as much as possible and thus avoiding any possible incident when crossing under the existing bridges during the route. At the final location, the CS1000 jacking system was prepared to lift the bridge, with the help of a hydraulic winch system, in a maneuver that required the interruption of the river traffic on the Seine during 14 hours.
These projects are part of the works carried out on the banks of the Seine River for the 2024 Olympic Games, which will include replanting forests, the creation of a two-lane bike path to facilitate travel in the French capital during the Olympics, and the creation of a 1,200 m2 nautical base. The Athletes' Village will occupy a total of 47,000 m2 of usable space and will provide accommodation for more than 2,500 athletes.
Sarens has a long history in the transport and installation of bridges in France. Among other projects, it collaborated in the construction of the Seiberg bridge in Boulogne Billancourt, in the work on the Mayenne viaduct in the north of Chateau Gontier. More recently, the company has participated in the installation of a 250-ton pedestrian footbridge in the center of Hazebrouck, or in the installation of the OA14 Bowstring bridge in the Luxembourg town of Bettembourg, which is part of the works for the extension of its railway line.
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Sarens is the global leader and reference in crane rental, heavy lift and engineered transportation services. With state-of-the-art equipment, value engineering, one of the world's largest inventories of cranes, transporters and special rigging equipment, Sarens offers creative and intelligent solutions to today's heavy lifting and engineering transport challenges.
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