Going Up

Renovating a 136-m-high maintenance lift at Severn Bridge

Every day, thousands of commuters use the Severn Bridge, which crosses the River Severn and links South Wales with South West England. The bridge is Grade I-listed and consists of four connected structures.

Of the many thousands of people safely crossing the bridge daily, few will be aware that each of the four 136-m-(445-ft) high towers of the central bridge section contains a lift within it that is used by maintenance and repair teams to keep the bridge safe and in good condition.

Stannah installed two of the lifts in 1988 to replace the old series of Jacob’s ladders, which were previously used by maintenance personnel to access the internal inspection platforms within the towers. Due to the challenging height and width requirements, the lifts themselves were completely bespoke, with each element custom built.

Modernising the Severn Bridge lift has resulted in increased safety and reliability for the engineers and maintenance teams that use it.

Since then, Stannah has continued to provide regular service and maintenance on all four lifts. Because replacement parts were becoming increasingly hard to source, in 2020 — 32 years since the original installation project — it was time to upgrade one of the lifts for easier maintenance and improved reliability. The new project was to upgrade the control panels and re-wire the complete installation on one of the lifts.

It was freezing work, as refurbishment had to take place on cold October and November days. Paul Lacey, Stannah’s field repair manager, said:

“When working on this job, you are really exposed to the elements. Site safety was, of course, a critical concern, with our lift engineers not only having to work in confined spaces within the tower and windy conditions up at the top of the tower, but also having to access the site at road level next to a very busy thoroughfare and pedestrian walkway.”

The Client

The client for the lift refurbishment project was Lang O’Rourke and Highways England. Lang O’Rourke delivers engineering, construction and asset management solutions for organisations around the world, while Highways England is a government-owned company that maintains and improves England’s major roads.

The Solution

The refurbishment involved fitting equipment, designed by International Lift Equipment in Leicester, unique to the project. The Stannah team worked in close collaboration with reliable suppliers and the client, ensuring that appropriate components were selected to keep the lift running efficiently and safely for years to come, and making sure all aspects of on-site work ran smoothly.

Of course, the solution was also about Stannah’s experience, flexibility and ability to deliver lift solutions in all kinds of settings and environments, with effective project management and with safety always paramount.

The Result

Modernising the Severn Bridge lift has resulted in increased safety and reliability for the engineers and maintenance teams that use it.

Robert Penney, general manager Specialist Bridges Group at Highways England, described the restoration work carried out on the bridge lift by Stannah as “fantastic,” adding:

“Working with Stannah has proved invaluable to our operation of the M48 Severn Bridge. This fantastic work, undertaken in a challenging environment, to refurbish and modernise our lift system has allowed my team to operate far more effectively. The Stannah team have done a great job delivering this project, and I am very much looking forward to the next phase, as we complete similar works on the neighbouring lift.”

The Stannah team spent just 12 weeks on the project. By delivering the renovated lift on time and budget, we were able to demonstrate our commitment to being true to our word, even for the most technically complex projects.

www.stannahlifts.co.uk