Sensitive bridge work in Brazil

Brazilian contractor Complex Ltda was faced with a challenge when it won the contract to demolish an old bridge that connected districts in the city of Vitoria in the state of Espirito Santo. The old bridge could no longer cope with the increasing volume of traffic crossing between the city districts and it had in fact been replaced by three new structures. Its demolition required the removal of 1,300 cubic metres of concrete, with a provision of the contract requiring that for environmental reasons none of the resulting demolition debris was to be allowed to fall into the river below.

Complex first used an Atlas Copco SB 452 breaker to remove the lighter concrete structures such as the parapet and concrete surfacing. Once this had been done, two Atlas Copco MB 1700 breakers and two CC1700 CombiCutters, mounted on Volvo EC210 and Cat 416E carriers, were then used to first remove the concrete bridge deck and then the 10 concrete beams that made up the bridge’s main structure. All resulting debris was received by a barge moored in the river below the bridge and was then transported to a recycling plant for further processing.