Budweiser Budvar has built a unique bridge for beer

During the past weekend, Kněžskodvorská Street in České Budějovice was spanned by a steel construction of a unique bridge for transporting beer. The bridge with a total length of 164 meters is going to connect Budweiser Budvar brewery’s production line with the newly built logistics centre in the future. The construction, which is expected to be put into operation in February 2018, is going to significantly relieve the traffic on Kněžskodvorská St.

On Saturday 11th March, Kněžskodvorská Street in České Budějovice was spanned by a tube of a bridge technology, which is going to connect Budweiser Budvar brewery’s production premises with the newly built logistics centre in the future. The bridge tube comprises a total of four parts of a total length of 164 metres. On Saturday, the central part of the bridge 43 metres long and weighing 50 tonnes was lifted over Kněžskodvorská Street. The part was lifted on 12-metre high pillars by the crane LTM 1500. This crane with a load capacity of 500 tonnes is the largest crane available in the Czech Republic (the technical specifications can be found here). During the past weekend, the whole construction of the bridge was completed. In the forthcoming weeks, a cladding will be mounted on the steel tube. The installing of the internal transport system - i.e. a suspensory rail track, is going to start at the end of May 2017. The bridge should be completed by February 2018. The construction part of the bridge is being supplied by EDIKT, joint stock company, while Porr, joint stock company is the supplier of the entire logistics centre building. The technological bridge is one part of the extensive investment into the brewery’s logistic centre.

“The suspensory monorail track will transport more than 2,000 bottles of beer per minute, while pallets with empty packaging will travel to the bottle filling rooms in the opposite direction. The new bridge is going to significantly relieve the traffic on Kněžskodvorská Street, as we have had to transport the ready beer as well as packaging between our two premises by lorries so far,” says Adam Brož, Ph.D., MBA, Budweiser Budvar’s brewmaster (production and technical director). The traffic situation on Kněžskodvorská Street is going to get even better after the construction of a road bridge between the brewery grounds, which is going to lead all the remaining in-house traffic away from the public communication. “In addition to that, we are going to build 70 parking spaces for our employees inside the logistics complex, thus relieving the parking areas near the brewery,”adds Adam Brož.

The technological bridge is going to connect bottle and can filling rooms with the fully automated rack shelving storehouse with a capacity of 20,000 pallet spaces. The construction started last autumn. The storehouse will be equipped with the latest logistics technology and will accelerate the delivery of beer to customers from around the world.

Budvar 2017+
The technological bridge is one of the most important buildings within Budweiser Budvar’s development. The brewery first attacked the upper limit of its production and logistics capacity in 2015, when the volume of sold beer reached the threshold of 1.6 million hectolitres. Despite that, the beer sales were still increasing in 2016 as well, reaching another historic high. The volume of beer production has grown by 40% in the previous years. Last year we launched an extensive development investment of approximately CZK 2,000 million aimed at a permanent increase of the production and logistics capacity, so that the brewery could reach a 2-million hectolitre limit. New pressure tanks for beer before bottling of a nominal volume of 10,000 hectolitres belong among the projects already completed.  Currently, the upgrade of the central information system (ERP), the construction of an automated warehouse and road bridge construction are taking place. A project preparation for the next stages of the development is being finalised, namely for the expansion of cellars, the construction of a third bottle-filling line and the brewing house capacity expansion. The range of the investment mentioned is aimed at the horizon of 2020. In addition to the necessary expansion of the production capacity, this investment is going to bring a significant improvement in the supply and distribution logistics of the brewery in particular.

Technological bridge – facts and information

• It is a steel lattice structure supported by monolithic reinforced concrete towers and three pairs of precast columns.
• The construction will be cladded and fitted with windows.
• The total length is 164.3 metres (from the brewery’s production site over Kněžskodvorská Street 120.9 m; within the new logistics complex an additional 43.4 m).
• The lower edge of the bridge is at a height of 12 metres from the road and other areas.
• The width of the bridge, including the cladding will be 6.84 metres and the height will be 4.72 metres.
• The staff will be able to go though the bridge in order to carry out maintenance.
• The pallets will be transported to the level of the bridge by 6 lifts.
• A transportation system supplied by SSI Schäfer company will be used to transport the pallets. The system of a suspensory monorail track is not a commonly used solution in the Czech Republic - the goods transported on pallets are moved by special suspended self-propelled trucks. These transportation units move fully automatically and in a closed loop.
• The production of the steel structure took place in Lomnice nad Popelkou and then it was transported in individual parts using 15 trucks from there to České Budějovice, where the final assembly of the four major parts of the technological bridge tube was carried out. After assembling, these 4 parts were lifted onto the monolithic towers and precast columns, subsequently being joined by bolted joints.

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