Restoration effort is cut and dried

06 December 2006
 
A contract to construct and maintain a dehumidification to safeguard the beleaguered Forth Road Bridge has been announced this week.
The Forth Estuary Transport Authority has given the £7.8M deal to C Spencer, to protect the main cables of the bridge.
Dehumidification works on the basis that if relative humidity of the air within the cable can be reduced to 40%, corrosion cannot occur.
Last month, the authority admitted acoustic monitoring on the main cables had found three wire-breaks since the system was commissioned on 18 August. Tests have so far shown ‘significant corrosion’ on the crossing resulting in a loss of strength of between eight and 10%, a conclusion later verified by an independent audit.
If the corrosion cannot be halted, FETA believes weight restrictions may have to be introduced as early as 2013.
C Spencer will be installing equipment to inject dry air into the bridge’s two main cables to prevent further corrosion.
This method is used extensively in Japan, and Nippon Steel has assisted Faber Maunsell, the consultant brought in when the corrosion was first found, with the system design. The project is expected to be complete by September 2009.
C Spencer installed access gantries on the Forth and Erskine road bridges and was involved in the unwrapping and original investigation of the main cables on the Forth. Following on from its work at the Forth, the firm is currently carrying out inspection work on the Severn bridge cables.

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