Shields Road
The project
Cementation Skanska were appointed by Story Contracting as part of their work to replace the bridge over the railway on Glasgow's Shield's Road. A critical part of Glasgow's road network, the completed bridge will be stronger and better able to carry the size and volume of traffic using Shields Road.
Working on behalf Network Rail and Glasgow City Council, Story Contracting reopened the road over the new bridge in August 2024, making Cementation's work to install the 16 rotary bored piles needed to support the bridge, time critical.
The challenge
From start to finish the overall project will have meant road closures and diversions for a year to enable utility diversions, demolition of the original bridge and preparation and construction of the new bridge. So, to minimise the impact on road users and the local community, working within time constraints was crucial. This meant delivering a safe system of work without the need for any remedial work and within the deadline was essential.
This all had to be achieved on a challenging site - constrained by a bridge and a tunnel and divided in two by a live railway with ALO (adjacent line open) restrictions on the use of cranes.
The solution
The time constraints meant we had to install 16 piles over nine days with no margin for error. Two concrete piling platforms were installed on each side of the demolished bridge. We installed mobile kill switches and virtual wall limitation software to meet ALO conditions and prevent the hired cranes from moving beyond their safe zones. And, by spreading the work across two areas, with rigs operating on both sides of the live railway and careful coordination of tasks we were able to meet the programme output needed.
During the Cementation Skanska project, we utilised direct communication headsets between the banksman and rig driver. We plan to continue using this improvement in future rail projects under ALO conditions.
The outcome
With our own quality measures and safe standard for Health & Safety in place, the project was delivered 'right first time'.
Cementation's extensive experience of groundworks in and around Glasgow was invaluable, enabling us to foresee potential installation issues with the soil strata variation prevalent in the area. Coupled with our in-house experience of delivering alongside Network Rail assets and our approach to collaboration with both customer and supply chain the works were seamlessly delivered within the deadline, helping ensure the overall programme remain on track.
Now completed, the improved section of Shields Road has a lane in each direction and a new segregated cycle lane.