Mabey Hire supports bridge painting

Engineering services specialist Mabey Hire recently supplied temporary support towers and jacking systems to proof test a Rubrica Painting Platform, which will be used to paint the 2.7km-long Queensferry Bridge connecting Edinburgh and Fife in Scotland.

For the project, which is being carried out by Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC) and Galliford Try, a series of towers were assembled using Mabey Hire’s Mass-25 modular propping systems. They were used to support 12m spanning beams, mimicking the girders of the bridge, and the platforms were then hung from them while load tests were carried out.

Gordon MacDonald, CEO of Mabey Hire, said, “The beauty of our Mass-25 shoring system is that it has seven standard lengths of up to 2,700 millimetres, supporting loads of up to 250kN; perfect for a project like this, where different scenarios need to be played out.”

A team of Mabey Hire’s engineers headed to the Forth Ports Marine Yard testing site in early April 2019 to pre-assemble twelve of the shoring systems and to help FCBC understand how the structures worked. Each painting platform was supported by eight Mass-25 towers at any one time, with the towers moved by FCBC as the testing of the platforms progressed.

Mabey Hire also provided a jacking system that was initially used to lift the platforms off the ground and up onto the spanning beams supported on the Mass-25 temporary support towers. The jacking equipment was operated by FCBC’s onsite jacking specialists.

Now that the platforms have been successfully tested, they will connect to the underside of the Queensferry Bridge to facilitate the painting of the structure, which is due to take place later this year.