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Today begins the final phase of a, literally, beautiful piece of reuse. The 1930's Gevlebrug was sailed from restoration site Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam to the other side of the IJ yesterday to be placed in its final location today.
The lift bridge served east of Central Station until 2002, but could not support the streetcars to IJburg and therefore had to be replaced. The bridge was then used for a time at the Noorderhoofd, an area in the Port of Amsterdam. After a thorough renovation, the characteristic bridge is now getting a new use as one of the access roads to the new Amsterdam neighborhood of Houthavens.
The restoration was performed by Niron Staal Amsterdam BV and Fa. Evenboer on behalf of Gebr. Beentjes Grond-, Weg- en Waterbouw and took place in one of Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam's four dry docks. "Great that we still have space in Amsterdam relatively close to the city center to be able to perform this kind of major work," said Tjeerd Schulting, director of Niron Staal and Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam.
While the Fa. Evenboer restored the existing bridge in the dry dock, Niron Staal fabricated three new bridge decks in its fabrication hall, one driving deck 6 meters wide and 28 meters long and two pedestrian decks over 3 meters wide and 28 meters long. After completion, the old bridge - named after the Swedish Baltic Sea port of Gävle, which used to be important for the timber trade with Amsterdam - was transported to the fabrication hall and the decks were mounted on the existing bridge.
Last Thursday, the fully assembled bridge was driven from the Niron Staal fabrication hall to the load-out wharf of Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam by means of a special transport with self-driven modular trailers. Here, the bridge was placed on a pontoon and sailed to the other side of the IJ River. Yesterday, the bridge was driven ashore at the Houthavens location, after which it will be brought into position today by means of the same modular trailers.
