Spencer Bridge Engineering has begun work on the corbels, land saddles, parapets and underdeck of the Menai Suspension Bridge to help safeguard the future of the Grade I listed structure.
And it is using its new AeroTruss system for the first time, to enable underdeck access.
The latest works follow Spencer Bridge Engineering鈥檚 delivery of phase one of the project, on behalf of UK Highways A55 Ltd (UKH) and the Welsh government, which saw the team replace 168 wire rope hangers on the bridge using specially-designed jacking systems.
First opened in 1826, the historic bridge is a crucial road link between mainland Wales and the Isle of Anglesey, and is the second oldest suspension bridge in the world still carrying vehicle traffic.
Spencer Bridge Engineering has been carrying out a series of works over the past four years to revitalise the crossing ahead of its 200th anniversary year. Currently, Spencer鈥檚 teams are repainting all of the bridge鈥檚 hangers to protect them from the elements and making all the necessary preparations ahead for the start of underdeck painting works.
The latest stage will see Spencer Bridge Engineering carry out repair works on 15 of the bridge鈥檚 corbels 鈥� concrete beams that support the footway on the approach spans. During phase one the team was able to repair 45 of the 60 corbels using rope access but the remaining 15 require intrusive works to be carried out on site.
Spencer will also repair and repaint the parapets along the entire length of the bridge, as well as load-check and re-stress the land saddles, which anchor the cables of the bridge to the ground on the Anglesey side of the bridge.
During the underdeck painting stage of the project, Spencer will deploy its new modular moving access system for the first time. Named AeroTruss, this is an access system that has been developed and designed by Spencer Bridge Engineering in-house to address common issues associated with temporary access systems. It enables access the underdeck while minimising load effects into the bridge structure.
Spencer鈥檚 bridges director Luke Fisher said: 鈥淭his project is particularly exciting for us as it鈥檚 the first time we are using our new AeroTruss system, which has been in development for over three years.
鈥淲ith over 25 years鈥� experience in the bridges sector, we鈥檝e become familiar with some of the common issues faced while working on high-level structures, so we鈥檝e developed AeroTruss to address these issues and ensure we can provide clients with the most efficient, high-quality service, while protecting the historic structures we鈥檙e working on.鈥�
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