Raising of the bridges on the Albert Canal_Lixhe bridge

The Albert Canal is the most important waterway in Belgium and Wallonia. Flanders is carrying out work to remove bottlenecks and modernise the network. Flanders proceeds with the widening of the canal between Antwerp and Wijnegem and the raising of around thirty bridges between Antwerp and Wallonia to ensure a clearance height of 9.10 metres. This will allow vessels to carry four layers of containers instead of three.

This project is a continuation of this connection between the Walloon hinterland and Antwerp with the same gauge. This specifically concerns the developments at the Lixhe bridge, but similar studies are being carried out by the same project author for the Haccourt, Hermalle-sous-Argenteau and Lanaye bridges in the municipalities of Oupeye and Visé.

The Lixhe bridge is a cable-stayed structure approximately 300 metres long with four spans. It was built in 1982. It has a composite steel-concrete deck.

The technical study showed that it was more advantageous to rotate the structure at C1 (left bank) until the 9.1 m clearance was achieved between P2 and P3. This is because commercial shipping takes place in this span. The P1–P2 span is only used to access the Euroports loading dock and can be retained with a clearance of 7.5 m.

This rotation greatly limits the work required on the left bank approaches, as C1 remains unchanged in height, while the difference in height at C2 increases to 2.16 m instead of 1.57 m in the vertical translation solution. The impact on the right bank is therefore similar to that which would have been necessary in the event of vertical raising of the structure.

On the left bank, the slopes of the roads/access ramps to the bridge remain unchanged, with a tangential connection to the new longitudinal profile of the bridge. On the right bank, the road connections to the new longitudinal profile of the raised bridge have slopes of close to 5%. The connection radii comply with the values prescribed for a speed of 70 km/h, i.e. 1,500 m for concave connections and 1,600 m for convex connections.

The project plans to integrate a soft mobility route along the N602 from the roundabout on the right bank of the dam bridge over the Meuse to the junction with the N605. In general, these developments consist of dedicating half of the current road surface to soft mobility and keeping the other half for motor traffic (on alternating lanes). The speed limit on the entire section will be reduced to 70 km/h and the various junctions will be redesigned to allow safe crossing.