Port of Tyne Biomass Silo Construction

Port of Tyne rail load silo was constructed with a live train track within 5m of the base of the silo. This became one of the major obstacles, as we were restricted in our crane slue. We used a mobile tower crane, as this meant that once the driving unit was in place there was no moving around site. This removed any potential contact with site operatives as the unit was static, and it enabled us to restrict the slew to remove the risk of slewing over the live track. The project was constructed over a very cold period, therefore the concrete mix had to be designed specifically for the project and the cold working temperatures, yet still allow the slipform to progress at an acceptable rate of lift. The slipform silo was 30m in height and 14m internal diameter with a 200mm wall reduction at 9m. The wall reduction was necessary to hold the internal cone for loading the trains. The project was constructed on a 24 hour slipform period, as this allowed for one uniformed structure with no day joints needed to be made water tight. The slipform construction took 11 days, including the wall reduction and gave a rate of rise of 3.5m per 12 hour shift. This was extremely quick for this time of the year and the low ambient temperatures.