Welcome to the May 2023 special issue of Civil Engineering on temporary works. The diverse range of papers in this issue give a global perspective of the often extraordinary challenges that temporary works can and do involve. In addition to structural and construction engineering, sometimes on a vast scale, it is also about process, policy and procedure and well as communication, cooperation, coordination, competence and control.
We start with a paper on temporary works safety through design by Williams (2023), who is a colleague of mine on the UK Temporary Works Forum. As he says, all good temporary works designs should begin with a good design brief: time spent on this can be invaluable. He explains how Britain’s rail track owner Network Rail applies ‘safety by design’ principles to integrate temporary works with permanent works on all its construction and maintenance programmes.
The next paper is co-written by three experts in ground engineering and application (Roberts et al., 2023). They describe the latest applications of ground-water management, one of the least visible yet potentially most important and complex aspects of temporary works, and how this technology continues to evolve.
Joshua and Milward (2023) then detail their involvement in the supply of a large, complex access scaffold that was used to replace a roof lantern at Westminster Hall in London, UK. The listed heritage building, which in February of this year hosted an historic address by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to both British houses of parliament, required a highly sensitive temporary access solution with minimal impact.
We then have a set of three papers on temporary works projects that involved the use of hydraulics. Lifting of any type involves risk, whereas hydraulic lifting often offers less risk as there are enhanced controls and fail-safes. Ascaso Til and Wong (2023) report on the innovative use of hydraulics in temporary works for large-scale infrastructure projects adopting modularisation and design for manufacturing and assembly. As they describe, the often huge-scale temporary works solutions contribute to overall safety, efficiency and sustainability of infrastructure delivery worldwide.
The next paper, by Miller and Zylstra (2023), discusses the use of hydraulics to enable effective and safe deconstruction of a steel truss bridges in the USA. While it is now common when designing structures to include a plan and procedure for safe deconstruction, this has not always been the case. This paper takes us through the development of options once the load-paths were understood, and the various solutions that were used.
Chesterton and Watford (2023) then explain how hydraulics were used in a novel way to temporarily lift the roof a of large sewage treatment tank in the UK. They describe how the location, design and project requirements led to the choice of a hydraulic solution and show what can be achieved when a contractor’s engineering skills help to create the desired outcome.
The final paper, by O’Connor and McCord (2023), explores the additional considerations for design and implementation of temporary works schemes on nuclear licensed projects in the UK. In temporary works, the implementation risk is a result of execution risk and consequence of failure, which in a nuclear context could be immense. It also shows how standards PAS 8811 (BSI, 2017) and BS 5975:2019 (BSI, 2019) are but guidance documents: if a project needs more reassurance this needs to be identified, planned and implemented.
My thanks go to all the contributors who have shared their knowledge and experience with us. I am also grateful to the Temporary Works Forum (www.twforum.org.uk) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (www.asce.org) for raising awareness of our call for papers. We hope you enjoy the result.
To learn more about temporary works, may I suggest the following free information resources: temporary works e-learning at www.twforum.org.uk/elearning1; webinars by temporary works design specialist Andun Consulting at www.youtube.com/channel/UCp76ajKF1X6HJ9NwIUu5IJg; a temporary works guide and sample procedure forms at constructionengineering.uk; and a Construction Industry Training Board awareness course at https://ecourses.citb.co.uk/learningprograms/viewprogram/id,18.
