27.08.2008

Harsco provides access for Forth bridge painting

Harsco, owner of SGB has secured a three-year, $20 million extension to its scaffolding services contract to support the final phase in the repainting of the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland.

The contract extension from Balfour Beatty continues a multi-year programme under which Harsco has been engineering and installing complex scaffolding structures and work platforms that give work crews access throughout the bridge’s massive superstructure, without disruption to the nearly 200 trains that cross the bridge each day.

Opened in 1890, the Forth Rail Bridge is the oldest cantilever bridge in the world and the second longest of its kind, spanning a distance of approximately 1½ miles across the Firth of Forth on the east coast of Scotland.
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The Forth rail bridge

Geoffrey D. H. Butler, Harsco president and Access Services CEO said: “As this and other future projects will continue to show, we see solid opportunities in the infrastructure and industrial maintenance sectors to serve our customers and sustain our momentum, notwithstanding the current moderation in the UK commercial construction sector.”

Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering gained the maintenance contract in 2002 after the previous contractor ran into financial problems. The contract includes blast cleaning to bare metal before applying a zinc based primer to prevent corrosion (35 microns); a glass flake epoxy intermediate coat providing a barrier (400 microns); and, a polyurethane gloss top coat to give an attractive “Forth Bridge Red” finish (35 microns) on all of its estimated 400,000 square metres. This system which has been tried and tested in an offshore environment is designed to give a 20¬ year life between repaints, which means the bridge may be free of its constant repainting for a few years The job is due for completion in 2009.