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Friday May 24th sees the biggest day yet for one of the most
revolutionary engineering projects of recent years, the Falkirk Wheel. As part
of her Jubilee Tour, her majesty the Queen will officially open the new £17
million boatlift and visitors centre on that day and thereby create the final
link in Britain's most ambitious canal restoration project.
Restoring the 200 year old canal link between the cities of
Edinburgh and Glasgow has been an engineering challenge almost on the same scale
as their original construction and Yorkshire engineering consultancy Bennett
Associates has played a major role in bringing the project to fruition.
The company's involvement began with the design and refurbishment
of three lift bridges and two swing bridges on the Forth and Clyde canal,
essential after 20 years of neglect and disuse. In some cases the original
moving bridges had been replaced by fixed bridges when the canals had fallen
into disuse, so Bennett was starting with a blank canvas and having to take into
account the fact that its new bridge would need to "re-educate" users to the
fact that it was now a moveable structure.
The showpiece of the whole Millennium Link project however has to
be the Falkirk Wheel itself. Replacing the original flight of eleven locks to
accommodate a difference in levels between the two canals of some 35 metres, the
'wheel's' futuristic appearance is a triumph of co-operation between the
engineers and architects.
Bennett Associates application of proven mechanical solutions for
the gearing mechanism allows the 13,000 tonne wheel, carrying 500 tonnes of
water in its gondolas, to turn near continuously, completing a half revolution
every 15 minutes.
The simplicity of the gearing design belies the fact that the
whole arm assembly has to rotate to incredibly fine tolerances under extreme and
ever changing loads. The real engineering innovation however goes unseen, in the
solution created by Bennetts for the gondola gates - ingenious, self sealing and
self energising lock gates with a compact latch assembly that was instrumental
in allowing the architect's design for the appearance of the wheel to be
achieved.
The end result of the close collaboration between architect and
engineer on the Falkirk Wheel project is a simple, efficient and effective piece
of machinery with all the glamour and visual impact of a piece of modern
sculpture.
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