Royal Border Bridge - Viaduct Refurbishment

Project Background

Royal Border Bridge is a 28-span masonry arch viaduct, which carries rail traffic over the River Tweed and forms part of the East Coast Main Line.

The structure is Grade I listed. It had been identified that the structure was suffering from defects such as loose brickwork, open joints, parapet leaning/bulging, fractured pattress plates and other minor works areas typical of masonry.

Our customer was contracted on behalf of Story Contracting and Network Rail to deliver a major intervention repair scheme designed to rectify all defects and ensuring this important piece of infrastructure is able to operate reliably and is safeguarded well into the future.

HAKI Access Solutions were awarded the access supply contract to design and install a bespoke access scheme to get our customers abseiling team out to the required repair areas.

Client Initial Specified Work Scope

Our customer contracted us to design, supply and install a walkway to provide access to all spans of the 
bridge above the water.

The walkway was to be accessed from a HAKI staircase located on the river bank and from the walkway 
their rope access operatives could descend into the cradles from the walkway to carry out masonry, 
brickwork, coring and steel repairs as per the Network Rail scheme of works.

Our Solution

HAKI Access designed a highly innovative bespoke access system for our customer that provided them with full access to all areas of the structure without the requirement for millions of pounds worth of scaffolding. These savings were passed directly to the end client (Network Rail).

Two types of bespoke steel hanger brackets were designed to work with HAKI 450 aluminium beams installed in pairs to create a three-board walkway across the entire of both external elevations of the bridge.

The full system was installed by rope access team with their access ropes installed during routine nightshift possessions. Access to the walkway was provided by HAKI MK2 stairs located on the riverbank.

Access to the arches and lower blockwork of the external elevations was provided by manually operated suspended access cradles. These were standalone units with no requirement for external power sources. They were suspended from the steel hanger brackets and additional masonry resin anchors where required. The customers site team relocated them to suit their works by cross hauling them across the arches and once repairs in an arch were completed, they were cross hauled out and along the walkway to the next arch.

Safety & Commercial Benefits

The decision to install a walkway and cradles instead of extensive multi-lift scaffolding provided suitable access to all areas requiring repairs at a fraction of the cost - an estimated £4million was saved on the access costs on the project with additional savings associated with the 10 month reduction in programme.

From a safety perspective, due to the minimal erection of scaffolding, work at height durations were also reduced along with all the manual handling required by a scaffolding project of that size.

Furthermore, there was zero impact to passenger and freight trains and a high high level of quality to the repairs was maintained as all repairs were completed from within a stable handrailed platform.