Balfour Beatty has been featured in New Civil Engineer for their innovative work on strengthening a 112-year-old bridge at Paddington Station using a pioneering ‘mega-tent’.
The project involved adding over 100 tonnes of steel to the bridge, originally constructed in 1912. Balfour Beatty’s experts have meticulously renovated and reinforced the main cross girders and longitudinal beams, ensuring the bridge’s structural integrity for future generations.
Bob Barker, Balfour Beatty’s Engineering Manager, emphasized the importance of maintaining a dry platform below during the work: “The slip resistance of the Grade II listed tiles on the platform is very low – if they get wet, it’s like an ice rink. Ensuring the safety of passengers was critical.
“Moreover, we needed an overhead crane due to space constraints on either side of the bridge. The tight confines ruled out the use of tower cranes or temporary mobile cranes, making the overhead crane essential for bringing in materials and lifting out beams and girders.
Balfour Beatty is a leading international infrastructure group with 26,000 employees driving the delivery of powerful new solutions, shaping thinking, creating skylines and inspiring a new generation of talent to be the change-makers of tomorrow.
We finance, develop, build, maintain and operate the increasingly complex and critical infrastructure that supports national economies and deliver projects at the heart of local communities.
Over the last 114 years we have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world. Currently, we are working to deliver Hinkley Point C, the first UK nuclear power station in a generation; constructing the world-class arts and cultural facility, the Lyric Theatre, in Hong Kong; and designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining the Automated People Mover superstructure at the fifth busiest airport in the world, Los Angeles International Airport.
Balfour Beatty is one of the UK’s leading rail infrastructure suppliers. From feasibility studies, planning and design through to implementation and asset management, we provide multi-disciplinary rail infrastructure services across the lifecycle of rail assets including electrification, track, power, signalling and railway systems and technologies. With a focus on technology and innovation, we look to enhance infrastructure asset performance and ensure smooth operations.
