Dalry, United Kingdom - Last week, Victor Buyck successfully launched the second half of the River Garnock Viaduct deck over the railway in Dalry.

"Ja doe maar eh Zaki", is how our launch supervisor started the second and final launch of the steelwork for the Garnock Viaduct across the valley. In the previous months, we had installed more than 10 000 bolts and 120m of site welds to build the 1150 T viaduct, bridging the River Garnock and Ayr railyway line on the southern side of Dalry.

Friday the launch commenced. Slowly but steadily the strand jacks pulled the 250m long and 15m wide deck from the western abutment towards the railway line. After acquiring a possession window of the railway, the launch continued on Saturday night with typical Scottish weather. 28 people patiently pushed in teflon pads between the weathering steel and the launch skates, in sync with the 600mm strand jack strokes. In a timespan of 10 hours, we moved the bridge 123m with a maximum pulling force of 90T and more than a year of planning, preparing and executing all came together.

Next steps are installing the permanent bearings, finishing the abutments and building the concrete road deck on top of the steel structure.

The A737 Dalry Bypass scheme is commissioned by Transport Scotland. Victor Buyck works with Farrans Roadbridge jv on this project.