43m Long Scaffold Bridge is BIG SUCCESS

Hello everyone,

Last night; Tuesday 29th Feb myself and Alwyn went to see the final lift of the 43m (141ft) scaffold bridge spanning over the A639 in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

The scheme has been ongoing for a month or so now after the original works were postponed in 2007. The Scaffold bridge was built off site by SYS (scaffolding) after being designed for May Gurney Rail by Alwyn Richards Temporary Works Design. The bridge was transported from the SYS yard in sections and fixed together at the side of the road by SYS before being craned into position last night. Scaffold towers support the structure at either end and overall stability is maintained by a cast concrete base. The bridge itself weighs around 72kN (7.2t) and is designed to carry railway cabling and a service load for access.

The whole process was a spectacular event, especially at night under floodlights with the road closed and one which required the full cooperation of May Gurney, SYS, Ainscough Crane Services and ourselves. Well done everyone.

The first photo shows the bridge during the lifting process and the second once the bridge had been located on the supporting towers.

More photographs and detail will follow on our website shortly.

Facade Shore - 2.5% + wind... but where is it from?

Whilst carrying out a design today for a large facade retention scheme I began to ask the question "why am I designing for 2.5% of self weight plus wind?". I asked around the other members of our design team to see if they knew where this originated from... but no-one seems to know the answer!

Even the usual suspects 5973 and 5975 don't seem to give this specific requirement. PJB told me how he had been asked to design for 10% plus wind in the past by ARUP but had always for as long has he could remember designed to 2.5% plus wind. Alwyn is still wondering if he had it on a hieroglyphic somewhere...

If you can shed any light on this please let me know! My eyes often have a tendency not to see somethings... such as speed-cameras, so it could be me, either way, any help with this one would be appreciated!

Ben.

Post-holiday blues

Well, it's back to work after a great Christmas. Happy New Year to one & all! (Truth be told I'm suffering from post-holiday blues & just doing my best to sound cheerful...)

However, entering into the spirit of this new ineractive blog site, I thought I would share some of my holiday snaps with you!

The first one was of a good-looking job on Matthias Church, on Castle Hill in Budapest (the one behind the Fishermans Bastion overlooking the Danube). The base of the structure consists of structural steel towers supporting UB bridges that form a base for the tube & fitting scaffold. It's face braced every bay full height, double standards full height, and plan braced every lift - hence (I think) no ledger bracing. Couldn't get close enough to pick out the ties. Tidy job though!

Second one (& this form of timber loading platform was quite common) in another area of Budapest. Note system scaffold punched off at rear. These loading platforms were very substantial & well constructed - not like some of the stuff you see in Spain etc!

Needless to say I have been labelled a "sad b*****d" for taking 'photo's of scaffolding whilst on holiday - but I bet I'm not the only one!

Cheers for now,

Alwyn

Holiday Photos

If you went on holiday over Xmas I hope you had a great time, however, did you return with photos of scaffolding? Emmmm...

Happy New Year!

I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. I love the Temporary Works Design Christmas break, 12 days off. Time to get back to work!

The First of Many...

Hello everyone and welcome to our blog site!

The main aim of this is to create an online place for us to discuss and share our opinions, design ideas, new product information or anything else relevant to the world of scaffolding and scaffolding design that we think may be of use to anyone in the industry.

We hope that you will subscribe to our blog, comment where you feel appropriate and most of all, find it usefull!

B.