The Hayle Viaduct

The Hayle Railway, opened in 1837, it was situated in front of the magnificent viaduct, built in 1852 by the West Cornwall Railway to I. K. Brunel’s design. The original viaduct, which was made of wooden trestle, stood for 34 years before being rebuilt in granite in 1886. Hayle viaduct is very unique due to having three roads that run under it.

Infrastructure contractors Dyer & Butler enlisted Chris Sedgeman Scaffolding Ltd to erect a 300m long x 12m wide x 12m high scaffold for major refurbishment works on the viaduct. Approximately 1,000 life expired deck timbers, old track, ballast, 4,500 rivets and existing handrail needed to be replaced within a challenging 6 week period.

Work Commenced

NASC registered scaffolding contractors Chris Sedgeman Scaffolding Ltd commenced works with the main access scaffold which was 300m long x 12m wide x 12m high. Using the time saving Plettac Contur scaffold system the scaffold was erected to the outside face of the viaduct plus in-between each of it’s 37 piers.

250 x 780mm deep beams were used to bridge under the viaduct, in total over 10,000 system components, 5,500 short boards and a 1000 sheets of ply-wood were used. Six access staircases and a secondary birdcage came together to complete this impressive structure.

Eight highly skilled scaffolding professionals from Chris Sedgeman Scaffolding Ltd were given the task to erect the main scaffold working twelve hour day shifts completing the structure in five weeks. Once railway line closures were in-place four men were on day shifts and four on nights.

A rolling temporary roof was also erected as Dyer & Butler had only 16 days to complete the works. The roof was to enable the client to remove and renew approximately 1000 sleepers, old track and ballast. Chris Sedgeman Scaffolding Ltd were rolling on average 25m a shift and the roof was erected and dismantled in 6 days.

Once the line re-opened, scaffolders then shrink-wrapped the underside of the track and the sides of the viaduct for replacing steel work and repainting the whole viaduct. These works are still on going.

Project Challenges

• Timescales in which to erect the scaffolding.
• The viaduct curved for 10m over the length of the viaduct.
• Access to the site was very restricted and difficult to deliver scaffolding equipment.
• Working over public roads had to allow for traffic with stop go boards.

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