Alphasafe has successfully delivered many technical scaffolds, including many technical scaffolds below bridges and/or over water. Many projects share similar technical challenges or safety challenges, but from time to time we encounter projects with new challenges. This project is one of them.
Scaffolding for Bridge Strengthening
The scope for this project was to strengthen an existing bridge in Central West NSW. Sagging had been identified in the bridge and essential maintenance and strengthening upgrades were required. That sounds simple, but the unique project conditions posed specific challenges that included:
- Unable to close the bridge or divert traffic.
- Critical weight restriction on the structure.
- Bridge design that prevented traditional scaffolding anchor.
- Extremely high working loads required.
Alphasafe worked diligently with the project engineering teams to develop a viable scaffold solution that overcome the challenging site constraints.
Scaffolding Over Water and Scaffolding from the Land
The bridge which is located near Dubbo in the NSW Central West passes over a river and is a main transport route for freight through regional NSW.
Parts of the work were located above land and were accessible with a birdcage scaffold built from the ground. Parts of the work were located above water and required a scaffold solution that was hung or suspended below the bridge deck.
Suspending Scaffolding from a Concrete Bridge
Suspending scaffolds below bridges is common. Alphasafe does this on a weekly basis. Typically bridges include steel beams, timber beams, or concrete beams with existing recesses that scaffolds can be secured to. This bridge strengthening project had none of those and required new way of thinking. Developing a method of securing the scaffold into a concrete bridge deck became one of our early priorities. The final suspension detail not only worked, it also overcome additional future concerns and eliminated rectification works.
Birdcage Scaffolding with a Cantilever
To aid the functionality of the site layout two of our scaffolds were designed in such a way to allow vehicle access below the scaffolding.
The planned site access road passed directly through our birdcage scaffolds, so Alphasafe developed a solution which featured a cantilevered scaffold platform that was able to withstand 1 tonne of loading.
Scaffolding a Bridge with a Weight Load Restriction.
As the planning progressed it became apparent that the condition of the bridge required precise design and loading configurations. Because the bridge is located on a main transport route to Dubbo in regional NSW. A road closure was not possible.
Using precision engineered lightweight scaffolding. Alphasafe’s scaffold design transferred imposed loads into precise parts of the concrete bridge structure which satisfied the critical weight and loading configuration.
Do you have a Height Access Problem?
Do you require scaffolding? No matter how big or how small, Alphasafe is here to help.
Contact Alphasafe today.