River Wey, Godalming

Due to environmental constraints along the River Wey, near the esteemed Westbrook Mills residential development, it was necessary to revise our standard access procedures for conducting a week-long rail bridge survey.

The survey pontoon set-up consisted of a five metres by four metres modular Versadock pontoon, with our usual personnel edge protection consisting of demountable metal panels and post and rope rails for access. Added to this were our lightweight aluminium spud legs for easy anchoring and a Rigiflex push boat.

Typically, once the pontoon has been set up, it remains afloat throughout the duration of the project. However, in this case, there was a request to remove both the work boat and pontoon from the river after each shift. This process would require dismantling the pontoon at the end of every day and reassembling it at the start of each shift, resulting in additional time and inconvenience for the client.

We addressed the challenge by deploying our Jekko SPX532 Spider Crane, which offers a 3,200kg lifting capacity. This allowed us to effortlessly hoist the entire pontoon out of the water and place it safely nearby, followed by the Rigiflex workboat.

Using our high-density polyethylene Euromats a track was laid from the hard standing to the river bank where the Jekko Spider Crane was tracked and set up ready to deploy and recover the survey pontoon each day ensuring time was used efficiently and the survey completed on time.

For all your floating access and work requirements contact Rebel Marine for solutions.