West Bridge

The client wanted this disused footbridge restoring to provide a link over the river between Duns Lane and Castle Gardens.

Although the bridge wasn’t very old, poor initial preparation and coating application had lead to premature coating failure and subsequent corrosion.

The problem we had was the fact that the river was very busy during the summer so we had to work from a floating pontoon as opposed to a fixed scaffold system. This enabled us to work on a section at a time whilst allowing river traffic to pass uninterrupted. The pontoon was moved to the side each night for safety reasons.

The work involved the removal of the perforated steel panels, these were blasted off site, galvanised and painted to the required specification, we then grit blasted the bridge to the required standard of sa2.5 and applied the first coat, item 115, second coat, item 116, third coat item 169, the perforated panels were then replaced.

On nearing completion it was found that the clients choice of finish coat was very susceptible to scratch marks and abrasion. We overcame this by applying a polyurethane clear coating to the entire bridge.

Contract: West Bridge
Location: Leicester
Paint used: 600 litres
Grit used: 7 tons

Bridge during grit blasting.		Bridge during grit blasting showing encapsulation.
Bridge during grit blasting.		Bridge approach with grit blasting equipment.