Bomb Damage Repair

Following the terrorist attack in June 2000 a series of repair contracts have been carried out over the summer.

Partnership working with J Murphy on a design and repair contract was very successful in reducing the time taken to replace the damaged girders and carry out structural repairs. The opportunity was also taken to deal with the damage previously caused by the boat, which collided with the bridge earlier in the year.

The cost of all this work was met by insurance.

Careful examination of the structure of the deck areas, which lifted under the force of the explosion, drew attention to further defects in the special deck surfacing which covers the steel plates. In significant areas it had started to delaminate (strip off) leaving patches of steel which quickly rusted.

It was clear that major repairs were needed and rather than shut the bridge again in the near future a programme of defect repair work was investigated.

Contractual disputes on the causes of these defects (design or workmanship) with the original contractor and specialist European sub-contractor, could not be resolved and the necessity to carry out the works in the summer months meant that an alternative contractor had to be brought in by the Council.

In-house engineers from the Highways division have pursued a partnership design and replacement contract with the Council’s highways surfacing term contractor, Colas ltd for these works.

The whole of the previous surface has been removed using power chisels where necessary. The bridge has to remain closed to traffic for safety reasons until a new anti-skid surface material has been laid direct to the steel plates.

The work consists of 3 operations.

1. Grit blasting the steel plates to remove any rust.
2. Laying the surface material direct onto the clean steel
3. Forming and laying movement joints between the panels

The works are noisy, dirty and operatives have to have breaks, but 7 day working is taking place with both Council engineers, contractors operatives and staff on site for over 10 hours a day. The works are delayed or stopped by rain as this causes newly cleaned areas to re-rust. In view of the previous failure a blast primer has not been used to protect the steel in case of a failure at the interface with the epoxy resin surface.

The resurfacing works are approximately 45% complete and 14 days of clear weather is needed to finish the surfacing and re-open the bridge.

This page was last updated on 09/10/00   

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020 8748 3020 ext 2169

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020 8576 5942

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