01.11.06
Pyeroy paints glowing future
Pyeroy Group, the North East company renowned for re-painting railway bridges across the country, is playing a crucial role in one of the world’s most famous redecoration projects. Pyeroy is currently engaged in a ten-year contract to re-paint the Forth Rail Bridge, the iconic 54,000-ton steel structure held together by 6.5 million rivets – all of which need to be repainted by hand. Pyeroy’s contract forms part of a ten-year rolling civil engineering and structural refurbishment programme, being undertaken by Balfour Beatty on behalf of Network Rail. The company’s specific role is the repainting of southern sections of the bridge, where it has worked for over four years.
In this time Pyeroy operatives have repainted over 30,000 metres of the major tubular beams and structural steelwork on both the South Queensferry and Inchgarvie cantilever sections. Specific requirements include the abrasive blasting of the structure to SA 2½ standard and the application of primer (50µm), glass flake (400µm normal/800um splash zone) and polyurethane (50µm) coatings.
Growing reputation
The Forth Bridge contract is sure to further reinforce Pyeroy’s reputation, which has been enhanced through several prestigious projects in recent months. In the North East, Pyeroy is involved in the repainting of refurbishment of the Grade I listed High Level Bridge that carries an upper rail deck and lower road deck across the River Tyne Main contractor May Gurney is carrying out the major structural renovation of the bridge and. Pyeroy is responsible for the recoating work. This involves blasting and surface preparation followed by the addition of a weldable primer coat (to facilitate on-site metalwork repairs) and finishing with three coats of high performance coatings to Network Rail specifications. Specialist anti-corrosive coatings are also being spray applied to areas inside hollow columns and other bridge areas.
Scottish success
Meanwhile, Pyeroy is currently undertaking work on nine railway bridges in the Fife area, including those at Perth, Kilmarnock, Torryburn and Dunblane. These contracts are being undertaken for Network Rail as a subcontractor to Mowlem.
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