Attridge Scaffolding in Midlands just completed an industry first, providing one of its long-term customers, Integrated Water Solutions (IWS) with a unique access package that combines traditional land-based scaffolding with innovative floating The ScaffFloat system is combined to lift and install a set of eel screen floats.

The scope of the project is to use traditional scaffolding to provide a complete channel for the vertical concrete pressure pipe surface of the riverside water plant, and then provide two large floating scaffold pontoons for storing and lifting new eel screens, each weighing 2.2 tons, entering The location is floating.

For land-based scaffolding, Attridge uses shear plates fixed in concrete with anchors to allow the saddle to stand up. Once the saddle is in place, the designed scaffolding is erected.

James Attridge said: "The planning time for this project is nearly 12 months. After preliminary site visits with the customer, this is a case of using the past experience of other projects to develop a plan. The only exception is the floating crane. This is us. The professional partnership with ScaffFloat allows both parties to jointly develop solutions."

As one of the main UK approved installers of floating scaffolding systems, they worked with the ScaffFloat team to design a custom design to meet very site-specific customer requirements. The access to the water is very limited, so two pontoons are built on the shore as a skeleton frame, which reduces the weight of the crane to 1 ton. After floating, the additional pipes, fittings and plates were hoisted down, and the two buoys were completed floating, and the weight of each buoy reached about 3 tons.

The scaffolding structure in the pontoons uses ScaffFloats patented plastic pontoons to float. Each pontoon can support 0.5 tons-two pontoons use a total of more than 60 pontoons.

The first pontoon was used as a storage pontoon. Before it was installed by Edwards Diving's team, it had a payload of 6 tons and was used to store floating components.

The second pontoon is equipped with a customized lifting A-frame, specially designed to lift a 2.2-ton, 6m x 3m eel screen. It is designed and manufactured in accordance with European norms and standards, with suitable dynamic applications and safety factors, and has been verified and tested on site, weighing more than 3 tons. In addition, Richter provides an independent Cat 3 inspection to provide further safety assurance.

"This is a great project. We are proud that we completed 6 elevators ahead of schedule without any accidents."

Toby Budd, MD of ScaffFloat, said: “One of the challenges of this upgrade is the depth of the water. The eel screen is installed below the surface of the water, so there is not enough draft or water depth to place the float. This means that the 2.2t lift must be at a distance of 3m. The pontoon is completed on the bow.

This is a great project, and we are proud that we completed six elevators ahead of schedule without any accidents. This is another example of the rapid development of the ScaffFloat system. Customers like its versatility. We have many other lifting operations in the pipeline. "