Norse subsidiary to refurbish Victorian bridge
Norse Commercial Services subsidiary GYB Services’ Building and Engineering team have been commissioned by Great Yarmouth Borough Council to carry out extensive refurbishment works to the Victorian pedestrian bridge over the Ravine at Gorleston seafront.
The £150k project will include complete removal existing decking, which will be sorted and reused where possible; replacement of structural steel beams and painting to a high marine grade specification with a 15 year guarantee . The existing timber balustrades will also be replaced with black ornate posts with galvanised steel insert railings and the new bridge deck will have a sanded finish with a non slip coating.
“This project is one of the largest undertaken by the Building and Engineering Team and is a real opportunity to show our expertise and high level of craftsmanship,” commented George Jarvis, GYB Services’ Building & Engineering Manager.
The finished bridge design will reflect the recently refurbished shelters along the seafront putting a modern spin on the engineers’ original design, which became known as ‘concrete Cockerill’. The finished bridge steel work will be black and grey with the bridge abutments also painted grey, which Jarvis says, “will give the bridge a solid and modern engineered style.”
GYBS are acting as principal contractor for the project, monitoring and instructing any works carried out by subcontractors.
Due to the scale of the project, it is notifiable to the Health and Safety Executive under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, “which brings additional challenges to the Job,” Jarvis said.
“The main area of the ravine pedestrian route has been closed, and when the job is underway a full encapsulating roofed scaffold will be erected. The scaffold structure itself will be very visible and, when removed at the end of the project in time for Easter 2014, will reveal the finished bridge. “