Balfour Beatty secures £74 million Forth Bridge contract

Source: Construction Digital

Date :18/02/2008 09:43:30

Balfour Beatty has today announced today that it has been awarded a new contract by Network Rail to complete the remaining restoration and painting of the Forth Bridge.

Valued at £74 million, the contract is set to mark the end of a modern myth when the painting on the Forth Bridge, which carries the East Coast Main Line north of Edinburgh, comes to an end in 2012.

Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering has been undertaking the refurbishment works on the bridge for the past six years and its team will be responsible for delivering the new contract.

Commenting on the award today, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, Ian Tyler, said:

“We are delighted to be continuing our operations for Network Rail on the Forth Bridge. Working on this iconic railway structure presents a number of unique challenges.

Importance

“However, together with Network Rail, we will be able to build on our long-term partnership to complete this challenging and fundamentally important work. By 2012, the bridge will be fully restored to its original condition.”

The works on the Forth Bridge will be carried out in a series of phased operations at a number of locations at any one time. access scaffold will be erected and the work areas screened from the environment before the existing layers of paint, applied over the last 120 years, are removed using an abrasive blasting technique. Steelwork requiring maintenance will then be repaired before the new paint is applied in three protective layers.

February 18, 2008