Case study · Enhanced general inspection

Cleddau Bridge

Client: Sanderson Watts
Location: Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire
Services: Rope access, enhanced general inspection

Proving rope access as a viable alternative.

The challenge

Cleddau Bridge carries the A477 across the Milford Haven Waterway. The asset owner wanted to know whether rope access was a viable access method for inspection and maintenance.

The approach

We used rope access as the primary method to reach every pier and bearing across the structure, including targeted areas of the deck soffit that would otherwise have depended on more expensive and disruptive methods. The inspection ran with zero disruption to the public: road traffic on the A477, pedestrians on the footways, and boat traffic on the waterway below all continued throughout.

Looking down from beneath the bridge at a technician descending over the wooded bank and the houses below

Smiling technician hanging beside a pier head and its bearing bolts, beneath the deck

Technician working on a pier head high above the water as a boat passes below

The result

The job was completed on time and proved rope access as a repeatable inspection method for the structure going forward, removing the client's dependency on expensive, disruptive, and unreliable methods.

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