Replacement of 500 bridge bearings on the 25 de Abril Bridge in Lisbon with MM1018

The 25th Abril Bridge in Lisbon is a 3.2 km long suspension bridge with a main span of 1,013 m, which is used by around 160,000 vehicles and 140 trains every day. After more than 50 years of operation, around 500 bridge bearings had to be replaced while traffic continued to flow due to insufficient shimming. Conventional methods such as shim plates or wedge plates would have been too time-consuming and costly. Instead, our innovative solution MM1018 – The Liquid-Shim® was used. The two-component metal-polymer system enables a 100% force- and form-fitting connection without mechanical reworking and at the same time protects against crevice corrosion. The application was carried out with injection pads, which enable simple and fast processing even with complex geometries. Thanks to this solution, the replacement of all bearings was completed within just 167 hours – while traffic continued to flow.