Road Slab Endplates - Dartford East Tunnel Refurbishment, UK

Ancon fabricated 474 stainless steel endplates for the replacement road deck slabs of the Dartford River Crossing, East Tunnel. Together the endplates totalled 396 tonnes and were supplied to the Project Contractor, Kvaerner Construction, over a period of 10 months.

More than 1 kilometre of road deck was replaced by Kvaerner, stretching through the Tunnel from Thurrock in Essex to Dartford in Kent. The replacement road deck was installed as slabs of 4.5 metres; each slab requiring 2 endplates.

Endplates were 7.34m long, 0.62m high, 25mm thick, weighed 835kgs and had 18 gussets welded to one side. The contract required that the endplates were supplied as match-drilled pairs to guarantee the precise positioning of 34 close tolerance bolts at each shear connection.