“NRS was established in Norway by me in 1983,” says Mr Nitschke. Over a quarter-century later and NRS is market leader in a comprehensive range of specialist construction equipment, such as launching gantries for precast segments as well as movable scaffolding systems for cast in-situ concrete bridges, and form travellers for free cantilever and cable stay bridges.

Still headquartered in Norway (NRS AS), the company’s main steel fabrication facility is based near Shanghai, in the Suzhou province of China. The company also has offices in China, Malaysia, the US, Korea, India, Slovakia and Thailand. “Altogether, we have over 200 employees – about 50 of whom work in our fabrication factory. The rest of the company is comprised of designers, engineers, supervisors and office staff.” 

Today, the equipment of NRS AS is widely noted for its practical effectiveness, economic efficiency and innovation. Its expertise and technological solutions are increasingly called upon to support a variety of bridge and elevated expressway projects world-wide. 

Building bridges in the industry

“Since its inception, the company has really grown. We started out supplying perhaps only one or two different types of equipment, whereas now we are the only company in the world that covers almost 100 percent of the equipment required to construct a bridge.”

Such construction, as he points out, is anything but a standard procedure: “A bridge can be long with several spans, or shorter with a long main span, and it is the design of the bridge that dictates the different type of equipment required for its construction.”

In 1997, NRS opened its Asian hub office in Malaysia. “We had just completed a large project in Kuala Lumpur for LRT; I had gained valuable contacts there and believed it to be a good central point for Asian infrastructure projects,” he explains. 

One year later, NRS decided to explore China. “We were the first international company in this industry to go into China – most of our competitors have since followed. It has been a very successful venture for us – we have probably supplied more bridge construction equipment here than any other company.”

In 2003, NRS closed the design office in Norway and a year later, established another in Bangkok, Thailand – NRS Consulting. “This is our main design facility where we employ 30 engineers,” he points out. “We carry out most of the design and fabrication drawings there, although we also have a smaller design office in Malaysia.”

“In terms of fabrication, we established a co-operation with two or three other companies and have been working closely with these since 1998. In 2007, we started our own factory. We began small-scale fabrication there, manufacturing form travellers – for balance cantilever bridges. We rented our facilities and we work with a Chinese partner – although we were the main shareholder.” he adds. 

The company’s factory in China has proved so successful that NRS has just bought up land where current fabrication is taking place, upon which a new facility, including an office, will be built. “The plan is to fabricate almost all of our own equipment, in our own factory in China.” 

“Last year, we opened a small office in the US, registered as NRS USA, and we have an office in Slovakia – NRS CEE (Central and Eastern Europe),” continues Mr Nitschke. “We also have an office in India, which is quite small at present although we will definitely be looking to expand this as India is becoming more of a priority for us.” 

Specialist equipment & services

The range of specialist construction equipment offered by NRS includes bridge builders, gantries, MSS (moveable scaffolding systems), beam launchers, FSM (full span method) systems, straddle carriers and tyre trolleys. Explaining some of this equipment in greater depth, Mr Nitschke tells us: “The form travellers that we manufacture ourselves – also known as bridge builders – were first invented in 1970 and today they are acclaimed for enhancing the cost-effectiveness of bridge projects worldwide. Over the years, we have continually improved our bridgebuilders, in collaboration with major contractors, and even offer tailor-made designs.”

The bridgebuilder system is lightweight, versatile and easy to assemble and operate. Rolling forward on rails, the system can be reset quickly and easily. It is used for free cantilever construction of post-tensioned box-girder and cable-stayed concrete bridges.

Mr Nitschke continues: “Our hinged Lauching Gantry solutions have proven successful in the erection of spans right down to a 75 metre horizontal radius. This is applicable for both overhead and under-slung gantries, and for both span-by-span and balanced cantilever erection methods. A specially designed gantry crane is used to travel through the kinked hinges.”

“The Moveable Scaffolding System is utilised for cast-in-situ bridges and can offer many cost-saving advantages to such projects,” he says, going on to explain the purpose of the company’s beam launcher equipment: “Pre-cast concrete beam girders – ‘I’, ‘T’ and ‘M’ beams, for example – are most widely used for short span bridges and viaducts. These pre-cast beams are usually lifted and placed onto the pier heads using cranes or other hoisting equipment from the ground below. However, for bridges crossing over water or viaducts with high piers or difficult ground conditions, it’s far easier to use a beam launcher to lift the pre-cast beams into place.”

“90 percent of what we are selling is fabricated in our own factory and with the fabrication partners in China. So, all of our equipment is shipped in containers to the project site and everything is therefore designed so that it can be dismantled and put into these 40 foot-long containers for shipment.” 

In addition to the comprehensive range of equipment, NRS also provides a range of construction, engineering and other services, as Mr Nitschke points out: “Our team of qualified and experienced structural design engineers and technicians provides a complete range of construction engineering and temporary design works related to bridge building. We also offer drafting services for all types of structural drawings; 3D modelling and animation of engineering projects.”

Bridging the world

NRS operates on a truly global scale, as Mr Nitschke points out: “We are involved in projects in the US and we are currently shipping out to Mexico for Técnicas Especialies para la Construcción, which has the Cimmaron Bridge project underway,” he tells us. “We have three projects in Poland – the Kedzierzyn-Kozle Bypass project for Freyssinet Polska, the Sandomierez Bridge project for Mota-Engil Polska and MA-91 Motorway Bridge Grudziadz, Poland project for BBR Polska. We are also supplying to installations in Spain, Slovakia, Egypt, Andorra, New Zealand and Norway.

“In India, we have four large projects currently underway: the Badapur Elevated Corridor for Hindistan Construction, the Wazirabad Project in Delhi for Gammon, the Cochin Bridge for Afcons, and the Chambal Bridge for Freyssinet International & Cie.” 

“In Korea, there is a project underway to build the second Incheon Bridge, connecting Incheon Island to the mainland. Our client here is the contractor Samsung and this is, by far, our biggest and the most important bridge project in Korea,” he remarks. “The construction methods that are being implemented are quite outstanding, and the equipment that we have supplied for the project is also something very special and very much tailor-made for that project. It is working very well indeed.”

The company’s ability to resolve some of the most difficult construction constraints with its equipment is testament to the NRS team’s innovation and constant pursuit of engineering improvement over the years. “I think that, technically speaking, we have remained ahead of the competitors and, although they may catch up, we remain very competitive as we have huge resources for design. We have about 60 engineers over in Bangkok and the other office. So we do design very efficiently and to a low price, and an integral part of the development and design is actually based on feedback and close cooperation with our client.We find this practical R&D is often the most effective method.”

Quality is paramount

“So, many people ask us what NRS means, so I tell them that it means ‘Never Rest or Sleep’,” informs Mr Nitschke. “We try to be a little bit ahead of our competitors – in terms of efficient fabrication, innovative design, and in lowering the price. So, I think that this is the main reason that we have been successful. However, we will never jeopardise the quality of our products,” he stresses.

“Quality is very important and because we are doing the fabrication in China, this is something that we must be particularly stringent on. When we started out, none of our competitors was based in China, but now I think that most of our competitors are now fabricating in China, so this is an industry-wide concern. Even if you have a regular, trusted fabricator as we have – a company that we have been working with for decades – you have to follow this up carefully with stringent QA and QC. So, we have ten supervisors in China doing only QA and QC in the factory where we are doing the fabrication – these inspect not only the quality in our own fabrication facility, but also that of our fabrication partners in China. Also, we use external QA and QC for testing procedures such as NDT (non-destructive testing). In addition, when welding, it is important to make sure that the weld does not have any cracks inside because, once painted, it’s difficult to see any defects. For this reason, the external examiners also carry out ultra sonic and x-ray testing in order to fully examine the quality of the weld. 

 “So, this is something that we have learned and even after so many years of using the same factory, we maintain this system because if you do things in China, you cannot control enough,” he emphasises. “Another thing is that when you supply to Europe, you also need to have CE-accreditation for the major components: this is something that we also follow.” In addition, the company’s design house, NRS Consulting, is set to be awarded ISO accreditation next month and ISO accreditation for the new factory in China will follow. “I think that this is important for the business – for the designers and the drawing and the calculation, right through to the fabrication,” remarks Mr Nitschke. 

Future bridge building

“Today we are very busy, but in the future, we will be paying more attention to India,” remarks Mr Nitschke. And indeed, an increase in business in India, plus the logistical advantages of fabricating there, form the most obvious reasons for setting up a facility in the country: “Right now, what we sell to India, we fabricate in China. We are transporting to India and paying quite a high import duty there. So, our plan is to both increase our activities there and to look for a good fabrication partner there. India seems to be an increasingly important market. Other areas that we intend to focus on more strongly will be the US and also the Central and Eastern European office. We plan on increasing the number of staff that we have at both of these offices,” he says, “although it still works out more cost-effective to ship the equipment to these developed countries from China. 

“India, on the other hand, is low cost, and so it makes sense to fabricate there. At the moment, people are saying to us ‘You fabricate in China and ship to India!’ – but we still manage to get jobs. So, in order to be even more competitive and to increase the amount of work that we get in India, we need to have a fabrication partner there.” 

However, the most immediate plan that NRS has in place is to get the new factory in China up and running: “Currently, perhaps less than 30 percent – in terms of tonnage – of the containers that are coming from China actually originate from our own company. But, from next year onwards, the plan is to have everything fabricated within our own facility.”

What emerges from the discussion with Mr Nitschke is a company that, from its inception up until the present day, has given priority to technical innovation in order to resolve some of the most difficult constraints in the field of bridge construction. With Norwegian know-how and Chinese manpower, the company has managed to perfectly combine cost-effectiveness without compromising quality, and this is sure to be the cornerstone of the company’s philosophy as it increases its presence in India and beyond.