Scaffolding Association members team up on iconic London landmark project

Fully Audited Members of the Scaffolding Association, Alltask Ltd, and Associate Members, Prime Scaffold and Structural Designs Limited (PSD), have been working together to provide remedial works access to the iconic Blackfriars Bridge in London for principal contractor FM Conway.

Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge. The original Blackfriars Bridge was initially open to pedestrians in 1766, then to all traffic in 1769. Since then it has been rebuilt a few times with the present structure being opened by Queen Victoria in 1869. Standing at over 280m long and 32m wide, and being an exceptionally busy route, when it came to needing remedial works undertaken, the project was always going to be a big task.

Having worked together successfully on a project at Rochester Bridge, FM Conway, Taziker, Alltask and PSD came together again to deliver this next vital project.

The bridge was due for complete refurbishment, with the brief for the scaffolding aspect of the project involving a fully suspended, encapsulated access package that was also aesthetically pleasing, Danny Bailey, Contracts Manager at Alltask explained:

“Iconic landmarks and historic buildings all require some level of repair at some point in their lives. But, when this important renovation work means the need for them to be covered in large amounts of scaffolding and sheeting to allow access, it can take away from the beauty of the surroundings. For this very reason, our Alltask scaffolding experts paid extra care to aesthetic appearances during the construction of the complex scaffolding which was erected at the historic Blackfriars Bridge in London.”

Scaffold design engineers PSD provided Alltask with a complex and detailed design with precision planning that enabled unobstructed usage of the bridge.

It was decided to use Layher Flex Beams for the structure and over £160k’s worth of components were utilised.

The Layher Flex Beams are manufactured in Germany and are a single unit with a high load capacity that needs no additional lacing and bracing. Work on span two of the bridge commenced in January 2022 and took 11 weeks for the scaffolding structure to be completely ready for Taziker to blast and paint the structure. Work on the other four spans is ongoing and is estimated to take another 3 years to finish.

The scaffold was completely encapsulated using an environmentally friendly and flame retardant shrink wrap to all elevations. Alltask worked alongside Abstract Hoarding and Encapsulation Services to install the shrink wrap.

All operatives working on the project were fully trained specifically for the task. In excess of 4500 man-hours has been clocked up completely incident and accident free to date.

David Rogerson who is the Senior Scaffold Design Engineer at PSD concluded:

“Whilst this was a complex project, it was extremely engaging to work on. The teamwork between Alltask, FM Conway, and ourselves has been critical to delivering the design, so it’s great to see the end product on site executed to such a high standard. It was also an absolute honour to be able to work on such an iconic bridge in the capital.”

Steve Wood, Senior Contracts Manager at Alltask concluded:

“Throughout the whole project, every care and consideration was given to making sure that such a large and complicated scaffolding structure had a minimal impact on its immediate environment. While the coverings obscured what was a very complex piece of bridge scaffolding design, it was pleasing to see that the scaffolding didn’t pose an eyesore on what is an iconic London skyline.”