The end of a modern myth?

If repairing or improving something is like painting the Forth Bridge, goes the saying, it will take such a long time to perform that by the time you have finished doing it, you’ll have to start again. The need for continuous maintenance of the structure has passed into folklore and led to the coining of a phrase for a never-ending job. But new advances in project management could mean that an end could be in sight for this most Sisyphean of tasks, with painters set to finally down their brushes in 2012.

Thanks to a new UK£74 million contract with Balfour Beatty, bridge-owner Network Rail has been able to outline an ambitious plan to finally complete the remaining restoration and painting work. “The Forth Bridge is a working monument to the genius of British railway engineering,” says Iain Coucher, Network Rail’s Chief Executive. “The work currently being undertaken will restore the bridge to its original condition and preserve the steelwork for decades to come. The team has now completed some of the most difficult work and they have already overcome the most significant challenges that this project posed. For that reason, we have taken the decision to accelerate the work, increasing the annual investment from UK£13 million to UK£18.5 million with the aim of generating long-term financial savings. The restoration work has been ongoing since 2002 but, due to years of underinvestment during the 1970s and 1980s, the scale of the job was initially unclear. Only now are we in a position to name a completion date of 2012.”

Currently 200 people work on the bridge on a daily basis – many of whom are locally based. The painting process itself involves erecting scaffold access systems and screening the area to be painted to prevent debris affecting or contaminating the surrounding environment. Old paint applied over the last 120 years is then removed using an abrasive blasting preparation and the steel is coated with an industrial protective coating system. The paint used to coat the bridge is a specialist glass flake epoxy paint, similar to that used in the offshore oil industry and designed to last at least 20 years. Network Rail and Balfour Beatty, however, expect it to last for as long as 30 years.

Essentially, each section to be painted is surrounded by scaffolding and then encased in what Coucher describes as a “film-like” material. “The purpose of this is to capture all the debris from the removal of the old paint and from any steel repair work,” he says. “This also provides a controlled and protected environment within which coatings can be applied and allowed to cure. We are very conscious of all our environmental responsibilities and have imposed stringent control measures to make sure we are protecting the surrounding environment, including the Firth of Forth.”

After thorough cleaning, paint is applied both by airless spray and by hand in areas of particularly difficult access. “Our first priority is safety of our own workforce and contractors, so each blaster/painter is kitted out with full breathing apparatus and specialist protective clothing for the job, including regular health monitoring,” says Coucher.

Repairs and the replacement of walkways – including the installation of new walkways and catwalks to allow for access to the works and to assist in the examination of the bridge – are also a key part of the improvement programme, as is the replacement of small localised sections of steel where required.

“Working on the Forth Bridge presents a number of unique challenges and conditions,” says Marshall Scott, Managing Director for Balfour Beatty Regional Civil Engineering. “Over the past six years, the partnership that Balfour Beatty and Network Rail, together with our sub-contractors, have established has resulted in worldwide interest from engineering groups working on projects of a similar scale. Despite the demanding conditions, we have now worked in excess of 2.4 million hours on the bridge over six years without a serious accident and our methods have been adopted across the UK as examples of best practice. We now look forward to taking this project to completion in 2012, and, with the removal of the scaffolding, the restoration of this remarkable bridge will return it to near pristine condition.”

No disruption to passenger services across the bridge is planned between now and 2012 to complete the restoration and painting works.