Protection Scaffolding System At Point Piper

This month Stronghold Hire were asked to provide an access scaffold to assist in the construction of a new wall at Point Piper.

The Project Background

Prior to the scaffold being installed the client needed to demolish the old wall that was deemed to be an unsafe structure. One section of the wall was fairly high at around 4m and was retaining earth/land mass. The idea was to excavate the ground behind the wall first and then demolish the wall.

Directly below this section of wall was an electricity box. The concern was that during the excavation the vibration caused by the machine may cause the wall to collapse and the debris would roll down and damage the box.

Scaffolding Solutions

One solution was to temporary prop the wall while the excavation took place. This would have worked except we had an issue with how we were going to physically fix the props into the wall. We were worried for the safety of our scaffolders working in such proximity to the wall. It was because of this reason that we had to find another way.

Safety First, Always

We decided the safest way was to just create a clearance zone whilst the excavating was taking place large enough so that no object or person could get hurt or damaged in the event of the wall collapsing. The main problem was that this electricity box was only around 8m from the wall and within this clearance zone. The client asked us if there was any way we could protect box with the use of scaffold.

MK2 Soldier Beams To The Rescue

The solution we proposed was much stronger than scaffold and consisted of using mk2 Soldier beams. We approached our supplier to produce a suitable design to present to the client with an estimation of costs.

48 Hour Turnaround

The design was much stronger than what they envisaged so they were naturally very happy when we gave them the associated costs which still fell into their budget. Within 48 hours of acceptance our 12-ton hiab truck was on site with the delivery. The installation of the protective structure went very smooth with only a few minor challenges. We also finished a day earlier than anticipated which is always pleasing for all concerned.

Versatile Scaffolding Solutions

This project demonstrates how versatile the team at Stronghold Hire can be and shows just one more extra type of service we can provide.