Fulham Railway Bridge refurbished

Citation

(1998), "Fulham Railway Bridge refurbished", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 27 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.1998.12927faf.003

Fulham Railway Bridge refurbished

Fulham Railway Bridge refurbished

Keywords Bridge, Coatings

The complete repainting of Fulham Railway Bridge ­ crossing the Thames to link Putney Bridge and East Putney stations ­ as part of a two-year £8 million refurbishment has been carried out in Kemira heavy duty coatings (Plate 2).

More than 100 years old, the bridge consists of five spans of 153ft each over the river, together with three land spans of about 100ft each ­ over 1,000ft in all. They are supported by cast iron caissons, 14ft in diameter reducing to 10ft above the river bed, sunk deep into the London clay and filled with concrete below the riverbed and bricks set in cement mortar above. Granite bedstones 2ft 6in. thick, cast iron beatings and cast steel rollers completed the support for the main girders, 14ft deep and with plate cross girders at 8ft intervals. The decking was of 1/2in. thick wrought iron corrugated floor plates.

The refurbishment contract was awarded by London Underground Ltd to Tilbury Douglas Construction Ltd, Belvedere, Kent, with F.A. Clover & Son Ltd of Richmond, Surrey as painting contractors. It involved the provision of approximately 8,000m² of new steelwork by Jack Tighe Ltd, primed at the works with Temashield ES50, a two component aluminium epoxy sealer/primer designed to DTp specification, and given a first intermediate coat of High Solids Epoxy Temashield ENV(HS), then a final shop coat of "recoatable epoxy" Temashield ERV to receive the finish coat at site.

Some 800 tonnes of the newly-fabricated steelwork was used to strengthen the bridge deck with additional cross girders, new longitudinal beams and continuity plates. In addition, modern bridge bearings were installed, new balustrading provided for the replacement reinforced concrete walkway, and the deck replaced where it had been temporarily repaired following bomb damage during the Second World War.

Plate 2 The Fulham Railway Bridge which has just been repainted in Kemira heavy duty coatings as part of a two-year £8 million refurbishment programme

The site painting programme amounted in all to more than 25,000m². The existing paint system was lead based so that full enclosure of the initial grit blasting operations was necessary, together with monitoring of air and the level of lead in operatives' blood. The cleaned surfaces were then coated in Temabond ST250, allowing an extended overcoating period.

Where blasting was not possible owing to difficulty of access, the initial coat was also of Temabond ST250, a two component, low temperature curing surface tolerant epoxy aluminium primer with high build from brush or spray. With a wide range of applications, it is especially useful where blast cleaning is impractical and for upgrading systems from conventional to epoxy, vinyl, or chlorinated rubber.

Priming was followed by two coats of Temashield ENV (HS), a high solids two component epoxy intermediate/finish coat giving high film build. This is said to be of particular value in urban, marine and industrial environments, accepting water splashes or immersion and with high resistance to chemical attack. It is used both onshore and offshore where long-term performance combined with toughness and durability are required.

The finish coat was of Temathane PLV, a two component recoatable aliphatic polyurethane finish. Easily cleaned and with high gloss, gloss retention and antiabrasion properties, it claims exceptional weathering characteristics. Finish colours were 7010 G 10 Y (dark green) for the bridge soffit and 4020 G 10 Y (light green) for the superstructure, with gold bands at the tops of the river caissons.

"The entire system was designed to combine the best possible functional and decorative values, providing long-term protection together with colour retention to minimise maintenance costs", said Ian Clover of F.A. Clover. "As an additional measure, an area of some 2,500m² accessible to the public was coated with antigraffiti PDV clear, a two component pure polyurethane coating designed to combat vandalism."

Further details can be obtained from Kemira Coatings Limited, Heavy Duty Division. Tel: +44 (0) 161 764 6017; Fax: +44 (0) 161 764.