P&D3 Floating Pontoon Installations
Canary Wharf floating pontoon installation
The Pontoon and Dock Company was tasked with providing a floating bridge for Canary Wharf Contractors Ltd. The purpose of the bridge was to allow pedestrian access for in excess of 8000 people per day onto the newly constructed exhibition site, a distance of some 73m with a fall of over 1.5m from one dock side to the other. In designing the construction Pontoon and Dock not only had to allow for the rise and fall of the water level, but also for the fact that the bridge needed to be manually opened and closed to allow boats to pass.
After several meetings with the customer Pontoon and Dock presented a design using their P&D3 pontoon system. In order to attain the 5kn/m2 loading that was required in the specification, Pontoon and Dock opted to double stack the cubes and create a loading capacity in excess of 7kn/m2. This was then decked with a composite wood decking to create a safe, rigid surface.
In order to allow the bridge to open and close, we decided to use a simple sliding mechanism that would allow a portion of the bridge to be simply pushed open and closed, and locked into place using large pins.
Four containers of pontoons were delivered on the first day, and building of the floating section began immediately. The majority of the construction was completed on the shore, and as each of the sections was completed it was simply pushed into the water.
The deck was secured to the floating pontoon using specially designed metal brackets that allowed bolts to be passed through the treated wooden joist subframe. The boards were then screwed onto this.
Next the sliding system was added to the side of the main bridge section, and the roller brackets added to the sliding section.
Once the railings had been added the main bridge work was complete.
A large access was secured to the Canary Wharf wall to ensure that a gradient of not more than 1:12 could be attained at all times, and a shorter gangway was attached to the Wood Wharf.
The pontoon on the Canary Wharf side was secured simply by attaching steel poles to the wall and allowing the pontoon to rise and fall on metal pole holders. However on the Wood Wharf side we had to overcome the fact that the dock edge was listed and so chose to use steel anchors secured to plates bolted to the ground beyond the dock edge.
With the majority of the water course being in excess of 8m deep it was considered to be too expensive to put pilings in, so the main section (43m x 4m) was secured using a series of 15kg mud anchors on rope and chain.
Pontoon and Dock was able to overcome some major challenges in the installation, especially with the 20m access gangway on the Canary Wharf, and handed to bridge over for use on Thursday 1 September 2011.
On Saturday 3 September 2011 it was officially opened at the start of the Future Cinemas Top Gun event, with a rider on a Motocross bike riding across the bridge before wheeling off the Wood Wharf gangway.
Pontoon & Dock awarded contract to supply floating pontoons to Lanarkshire County Council
We are delighted to announce we have won a price competitive tender to supply 200m2 of floating pontoons to Lanarkshire County Council. The pontoons will be used for various events during the International Children’s Games being held at Strathclyde Country Park in 2011.
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