Sale Associates are pleased to be providing QA services to the Project Joint Venture Morrison-Bachy-Soletanch for this impressive new structure.
British Waterways unveiled the thrilling centrepiece of The Millennium Link canal project in December 1999 – the Falkirk Wheel, the world’s first rotating boat lift.
As much a sculpture for the 21st Century as a feat of engineering, the Falkirk
Wheel combines state-of-the art engineering, traditional Scottish imagery and marine
architecture. Four years in the planning, the Wheel is a collaboration between some of the
UK's brightest architects and engineers, and is already being hailed as a future
international landmark.
Designed to reconnect the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals between Glasgow and Edinburgh, the Wheel is the symbol of the £78 million The Millennium Link, the largest UK canal restoration ever and a national landmark project supported by £32 million from the Millennium Commission.
Situated in a natural amphitheatre outside Falkirk, Scotland, the remarkable Wheel is more than just a boat lift. As working art it will be a celebration of the age and a monument to the future.
The Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland says of the scheme:- "There has been a definite attempt to design the Wheel for the 21st Century. This design is considered to be a form of contemporary sculpture. The combination of cultural and technical factors adds considerably to the effectiveness of the overall concept and has resulted in a truly exciting solution."
Day visitors will be able to experience the thrill of The Wheel from special "trip" boats at the site. On land, a new visitor centre will provide the most sensational vantage point from which to view the Wheel in action.
Led by British Waterways, the scheme combines the international experience of joint-venture contractor Morrison-Bachy-Soletanch with leading specialists from Ove Arup Consultants, Butterley Engineering and Scotland-based architects RMJM. In addition to the Wheel, the site includes the construction of a new section of canal, two aqueducts, three locks, a tunnel, a railway bridge and a canal basin. Construction work begins in summer of 2000 and will be completed in autumn 2001.
Wheel Facts & Figures
- The only structure of its kind in the world, the Falkirk Wheel will be 115 feet (35 metres) high – the equivalent height of eight double decker buses. It will be 115 feet (35 metres) wide and 100 feet (30 metres) long.
- The Wheel will lift loads of 600 tonnes (300 tonnes at each end) – the approximate weight of 100 adult African elephants.
- The Wheel will be able to carry eight or more boats at a time and a single trip will take about 15 minutes.
- The Wheel will stand in a 330 feet wide circular basin with moorings for more than 20 boats.
- The total cost of the Wheel "interchange" is approximately £17 million (includes aqueduct, new canal link, basin and associated works).
- The project will involve over 500 construction staff.
- The Wheel site takes up 110 acres (45 hectares), the bulk of which includes an abandoned open-cast mine. The project will involve major landscaping and the removal of 300,000 tonnes of soil.
- Construction materials include 7,000 cubic metres of concrete, 1,000 tonnes of reinforced steel, 1,200 tonnes of prefabricated steel and 35,000 square metres of canal lining.
- The Wheel is designed to last for at least the next 120 years.
- The first wheel-based boat lift was proposed by a German engineer at the beginning of the century, though it was never built.
- The Falkirk Wheel will be the world’s first rotating boat lift and the first boat lift to be built in Britain since Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire (1875).