Braefoot Bay West Dolphin - Suspended Access

Project Background

Braefoot Bay is a two berth marine terminal on the North side of the Forth Estuary constructed to provide an export point for natural gas products from the Fife NGL plant nearby. 

Client Initial Specified Work Scope

Our customer required a suspended access deck to give their fabric maintenance teams access to the various dolphin access walkways for inspections, steelwork repairs and coating works. 

The walkways were showing signs of corrosion and decay so works were required to improve their condition to ensure they remain serviceable well into the future.  

In addition to the normal application of a coating system following plating repairs, the onsite team also applied an innovative STOPAQ wrapping system to ensure no further maintenance is required on the walkways for the lifetime of the jetty.

Our Solution

HAKI Access Solutions recommended the use of the innovative HAKI Underdeck System (or HUS) to provide the onsite teams with the required access.

Traditional scaffolding solutions could have been used however HUS offers installation rates in excess of 60m2 per shift therefore on assets with restricted access (works can only take place with no ship on the berth) our system ensured the access system was provided in a two shifts rather than the two weeks required for traditional solutions.

With an industry leading self-weight of around 25Kg/m2 the loadings into the host structure were minimised and with all components being light-weight, manual handling risks to the rope access installation team were also reduced. 

Safety & Commercial Benefits

The installation of the system was completed in two shifts allowing the onsite fabric maintenance teams quick access to the work site to assess the condition of the structures and decide on a schedule of repairs. 

Relocations of the system along the walkway again were completed in two shifts allowing the fabric maintenance teams to quickly get back to repairs rather than waiting for scaffolding to be stripped and re-erected. 

All contact points were easily relocatable and so could be painted as the scope of works progressed removing the need for a revisit once the access was stripped.