“We actually did much of the construction work on the girders about 10km away from the site itself,” explains Harsco’s Ingo Schnelting. “This meant that we could prefabricate the girder sections under more controlled conditions, which made it far easier to ensure that they complied fully with the drawings. That way we were able to avoid any unexpected problems on site and be confident that the girders would fit neatly into place.”
Harsco was then able to partially dismantle the girders for transportation and deliver them to site. This also minimised the disruption to other trades that would have been caused by fabricating the units on the site itself. Lack of on-site storage space meant that Harsco had to adopt a just-in-time schedule for these deliveries and also co-ordinate this with special permission from the city authorities to operate extended length transport vehicles.
“We had to remain flexible in our approach to every aspect of this project,” adds Ingo Schnelting. “The different lengths of concrete beam that the building required meant that we sometimes had to remove the girders from the building and transport them the 10 km back to the construction area. There we were then able to re-configure their length before delivering them back to site and using hydraulic jacks to raise them into place, ready to support the formwork required to make the next beam.
“This was an excellent example of Harsco’s ‘Insight onsite’ philosophy in action and illustrates the way we are able to develop bespoke solutions that are tailored to the specific requirements of individual projects,” adds Ingo. “The end result of this approach is that we can deliver the highest standards of reliability, cost-effectiveness and safety and that was certainly the case on this project.”
For more information please call. 01372 381 300 or visit www.harsco-i.co.uk
Via: Harsco Press Release
Chiles was born in Quinton, Birmingham, to an English father and Croatian mother, and moved a few miles away to Hagley, Worcestershireat age four.
A feature of his presentations is his Birmingham accent. He also speaks Croatian, despite having a self-confessed imperfect understanding of the language’s verbs, declensions, and cases. Chiles started his education at Haybridge High School, and then worked in his father’s scaffolding business, before graduating with a degree in English Literature from the University of London (studying at Westfield College, now part of Queen Mary, University of London).
Richard Dunn (Boxer)
Richard achieved his 15 minutes of fame in May 1976, when a brave but futile assault on Muhammad Ali’s world heavyweight title that ended after five one-sided rounds. Despite the beating, Dunn fondly looks back on the night in Munich as ‘the greatest thrill of my sporting life’.
Dunn earned his opportunity following a run of success that yielded British, Commonwealth and European titles. His achievements were sufficient to have a sports centre in his native Bradford named after him.
However, five months after the Ali defeat, Dunn lost all three titles to Joe Bugner.
The intervening years have been difficult. After losing most of his ring earnings when a hotel venture collapsed, Dunn returned to scaffolding, a decision which almost cost him his life.
In December 1989, while working on an oil rig, he fell 40 feet, shattering both legs below the knee. The injuries have responded poorly to treatment and he will undergo further surgery in July.
Now a grandfather, he lives in Scarborough with his wife.
Tom Davis (Comedian)
Tom spent most of his adult life as a market trader and scaffolder; his first break into comedy came in April 2005 by answering a newspaper advert for people with interesting stories about the 1980’s.
Tom thought it would be a perfect platform to try out one of his comedy creations on the unsuspecting public – Steve Matthews, a luckless loser from Salford. He managed to blag the whole day as his alter ego and was hooked. Since then, Tom hasn’t looked back and has been able to create a world of characters, which he can slip in and out of at the drop of a hat.
Gary Wilmot (Actor)
Wilmot’s father Harry was a member of The Southlanders and died in 1961, when Gary was six years old – his father was the bass voice that sang the famous line “I Am A Mole And I Live In A Hole”.
Despite these show business roots, his upbringing was outside of the limelight, and his first jobs were relatively low-key occupations; he was employed as a scaffolder, forklift truck driver and messenger before entering show business.
Richard Cole (Music Promoter for Led Zepplin)
Cole was from Kensal Rise, in the north London borough of Brent. His father was an architect who worked for Rolls Royce vehicle design, and later in aircraft assembly during World War II.
At age twelve, Cole became interested in music after hearing Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers. At age fifteen he quit school and with his first job working at a dairy factory in Acton, earned enough money to purchase a drumkit, to which he practiced along to Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa records.
The low wages forced Cole to take up an apprenticeship in sheet-metal working whilst also working as a scaffolder on construction sites. He was also very interested in the fashion industry, at one point harbouring plans to be a fashion designer, and he claims to have designed the shirts worn by John Lennon and Ringo Starr on the Revolver album cover.
The exceptionally high load-bearing capacity of Harsco’s SCF brackets (150 kN vertically and 100 kN horizontally) is crucial to this project. The pylon’s special geometry and continuous tapering mean that only six of the 22 brackets employed actually climb vertically, with the others climbing at transverse and often changing angles of up to 5% from the vertical. Despite its high load-bearing capacity each SCF bracket requires just a single tie, with installation of the tie cones being a simple task. The cones only need to be positioned at the correct horizontal intervals, and unlike pairs of cones, they do not need to be set at a precisely measured angle. There is therefore no need for elaborate realignment of the bracket to accommodate changes of angle or inaccuracies when setting-up the formwork.
Perfect package
Harsco is providing a formwork foreman and a number of technicians to support the project and ensure that the meticulously planned work processes are followed on site. Along with Harsco’s SCF formwork and various other ancillary services it is providing, this is helping the construction process progress swiftly and safely.
Record-breaker
With its 1,100m central span the 3,100m Russky Island Bridge will ultimately be the world’s longest and tallest cable-stayed bridge. Traversing the Eastern Bosphorus, it will link the far east port of Vladivostok with Russky Island, which belongs to the city. The Russian building contractor, SK MOST, is aiming for a record-breaking construction period of just 43 months so that the bridge’s four-lane road is open in time for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit at the end of 2012.
Russky Island Bridge – Data
Bridge deck width (steel structure): 21 m
Headroom under bridge: 70 m
Bridge length: 1,885.53 m
Total bridge length: 3,100 m
Largest span: 1,104 m
Height of bridge pylons: 320.9 m
Budget: €360 million