Facelift provides maintenance access for Southampton's Itchen Bridge
Methods
Facelift provides maintenance access for Southampton's Itchen Bridge
Keywords Bridge, Facelift, Inspection
Facelift's Moog MBI underbridge maintenance and inspection platforms have been playing a vital role during the second year of a two-year preventive maintenance scheme on Southampton's Itchen Bridge.
The civil engineering repair division of Warrington-based contractor Makers Industrial, part of the Keller Group, is hiring the special Facelift underbridge platforms on its protection and remedial works contract for client and toll-bridge owner Southampton City Council. Makers is applying a corrosion inhibitor and providing additional mortar protection of reinforcement on the underside and the inside of the ten-span, 773-metre long, post-tensioned, balanced cantilever concrete box girder bridge, built in 1977.
The L-shaped platforms,attached to their respective lorries standing on the bridge's 14m wide road deck, are telescoped and lowered down over the parapet, rotated up to 180° and extended to a maximum of 15m underneath the soffit to provide safe access to the external areas requiring treatment. "We could only gain access from one side of the bridge and the Facelift platform, which can extend right across the underside of the deck,was the only safe and viable method for us to use to meet the client's program,"says Makers Industrial technical sales manager Ken Dykes.
Facelift's Moog MBI underbridge maintenance and inspection platform
Facelift has been successful in regularly providing Southampton City Council with special underbridge units to inspect its high level structures, such as the Itchen Bridge, which is 30m tall at its mid-navigation span. The special platforms provide inspection engineers with safe and immediate access, unlike suspended and fixed scaffolding, which take a long time to erect and require constant protection from vandalism.
Further details available from: Facelift Ltd, Westside, London Road, Hickstead, West Sussex RH17 5LZ, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1444 881188; Fax: +44 (0) 1444 881199.
