Tamar Road Bridge Gantries Principal Inspection & Reporting for Future Maintenance Requirements Contract

It is a Statutory Legal Requirement that the Maintenance Gantries of the Tamar Road Bridge are fully inspected at 6 yearly intervals. The Tamar Road Bridge is part of the A38 Trunk Road and crosses the River Tamar on the border between Devon and Cornwall.

The crossing is jointly owned by Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Council (the Joint Authority) and operated on behalf of the two authorities by the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry Joint Committee (TBTF). There are four maintenance gantries, which are under the main deck and cantilevers of the Bridge and were installed in 1998 and 2001.

The gantries traverse along rails suspended from the underside of the Tamar Bridge, and they now require their second 6 yearly Principal Inspection. In order to provide a more stable environment unaffected by the weather, it is envisaged that the gantries and bogeys will require to be lowered from the bridge and removed from site for inspection and structural load testing and then re-erected although it is feasible to undertake the inspection in situ on the Bridge and Contractors are invited to detail their methods and pricing proposals for both options.

This contractual work is anticipated to take up to a maximum period of 12 months. A detailed report is to be produced identifying all of the defects found and what remedial works are required, as well as an indication of the costs estimated to repair them.

The testing will include Structural Load Testing of the gantries. Therefore, the information gleaned from the inspection will effectively inform the specification for the follow up tendering exercise to appoint a suitable maintenance company to actually carry out the majority of the maintenance works required, although it is possible that some more urgent remedial maintenance work may be required to be undertaken by the company appointed for the initial Gantry Inspection work or its recognised sub-contractor. Whilst the details of potential expenditure, given above, within this notice, are provided as being indicative only and in good faith, as a guide to assist Tenderers in submitting their bids, they are not an undertaking on behalf of the Joint Authority to purchase the Services to this or any other particular value and shall not create a binding obligation unless specifically stated within the Contract.