Set for completion by the end of 2022, the Brăila Bridge will be one of the longest suspension bridges in Europe, spanning nearly two kilometres to connect both shores of the Danube. Towering nearly 200 metres into the sky, this massive bridge is the most complex road infrastructure project ever undertaken in Romania, and ROMCIM, A CRH Company, is playing a vital role in bringing it to fruition.
Creating the various concrete elements – themselves some of the tallest structures in Romania – required ROMCIM to work closely with the client, construction and civil engineering company Webuild, to create tailored concrete solutions to meet the enormous strength demands of the new bridge.
A project of this complexity required close partnership between ROMCIM and the client to deliver. ROMCIM has contributed over 100,000m3 of concrete to the bridge. Pouring this enormous volume of concrete took 99 days and nights of uninterrupted work. To maintain this, 12 ROMCIM trucks kept up a schedule of constant deliveries to the site, while a dedicated team of seven ROMCIM employees relocated onsite to ensure successful application of the concrete.
ROMCIM also had to innovate to create an extensive range of concrete solutions for this project. In addition to ROMCIM’s Foundation Master Concrete used in the tower elements, the company’s concrete experts created a variety of new mixes, such as the Hyper Master and Compact Master concretes, to meet the exacting technical requirements of the massive bridge. These were all tested for durability in various weather conditions during both day and night, to make sure they could withstand the environmental stresses of bridge construction.
Creating specialist new concrete mixes for the bridge demonstrates how, at CRH, we rethink, reimagine, and reinvent solutions for the built environment, resulting in infrastructure that will stand the test of time.
