McLaughlin & Harvey (McL&H) has installed a large ruff truss as part of a £45 million rebuild project at Bristol City Stadium.

The 220-tonne West Stand truss structure measures 108 metres long and was lifted into place using two 600-tonne crawler cranes.

Both of the cranes lifted the truss in tandem to raise the steel work in to position on top of a pair of pre-erected columns

It was then restrained by seven pairs of roof rafters weighing 20 tonnes each, which were pre-assembled on a hinge mechanism allowing the rafters to be swung up and attached to the truss using a 25-tonne crawler crane behind the stand.

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The structures installation signals the West Stand phase reaching its highest point of 37.05 metres.

McL&H is now in phase three of the project, which has consisted of the old Williams Stand demolition and replacement of the two-tier stand which will hold 11,000.

Work on the lower tier of the stand will now get underway.

Mike Henderson, operations manager for McL&H, said: "A lift truss of this size meant there was a lot of careful planning. Firstly, we brought all the separate truss sections down from Scotland where it was manufactured, and pieced it together on the pitch before it was ready to be lifted.

"There was a lot of careful weather watching but luckily we had perfect conditions which allowed us to get the truss up in the air and the full roof structure in one day."

Work on the £45m rebuild project is expected to be completed in summer 2016.

(LM)