Floating scaffold used to complete 3t contract lift

Floating scaffolding has been used to complete a specialist contract lift on the River Severn using the ScaffFloat system which combines plastic floats with standard scaffold beams, tubes and clips, to make temporary pontoons and workboats for inland and coastal projects.

Working in partnerships with one of its approved installers, Attridge Scaffolding, ScaffFloat says the partnership was able to provide a full scope of works that included full access to the vertical concrete penstock face of the riverside water works using traditional scaffold, as well as providing two large floating scaffold pontoons for storing and lifting the new eel screens, weighing 2.2t each.

“This project was almost 12 months in the planning,” says James Attridge, from the scaffolding side. “After an initial site visit with the client, it was a case of putting together a scheme utilising past experience from other projects. The exception being the floating lift rig. This is where our professional working relationship with ScaffFloat enabled both parties to work together to develop a solution.“

Access to the water was very limited and so both pontoons were built shoreside as a skeleton framework, this kept the weight for the crane lift down to 1t. Once afloat additional tubes, clips and boards where craned down and both pontoons where completed afloat bringing their weight up to around 3t each.

The first pontoon was used as a storage pontoon. With a 6t payload it was used to store components afloat before they were fitted by the team from Edwards Diving.

The second pontoon was fitted with a custom lifting A-frame. This was designed specifically to lift the 2.2t, 6m x 3m Eel Screens. Designed and built to Eurocode standard with a suitable dynamic application and safety factor, it was also proof tested on site to over 3t.

“One of the challenges for this lift was water depth,” says Toby Budd, MD of ScaffFloat. “The eel screens were installed just below the surface so there was not enough draft or water depth to have the pontoon directly above. This meant the 2.2t lifts had to be done over the bow of the pontoon at a distance of 3m. It was a great project, and we are proud that we achieved the six lifts ahead of time and without any accidents. This is another example of how quickly the ScaffFloat system is developing, customers love the versatility and we have a number of other lifting jobs in the pipeline.”