Steel from Dillinger for the Bøkfjord bridge project

It was no ordinary project: The Bridge over the Bøkfjord, containing 600 tons of special steel from Dillinger, was mostly built in Nordhausen, Germany; the individual parts were transported to Wilhelmshaven and assembled there before they floated to Norway. The trip on the pontoon – a ship similar to a barge – took 18 days to reach the port of Kirkenes. The fjord was entered at high tide. As the water began to ebb, the construction was parked near the site where it would be deployed, then brought and anchored into position.

The 120-meter-long components are part of a network arch bridge – a tied-arch bridge with inclined hangers that cross at least twice – which is noted for offering the possibility of streamlined, material-saving design. It spans the Bøkfjord with a total length of almost 300 meters and is part of the European route E105 road that connects Norway with Russia.

Dillinger delivered around 600 tons of high-quality thermomechanically rolled steel, including high-strength DILLIMAX 500 ML-grade steel, for this extraordinary bridge project. It is expected to open for traffic at the end of this month. In addition to high strength, this special steel is primarily noted for being extremely tough and easy to fabricate, which is why it is used for maximum loads in the construction machinery, offshore and steel construction segments, for instance, where a high degree of precision and safety are required.