Environment Agency NGSA Framework – Bridge Inspections

The Environment Agency (EA) relies on the safe use of maintenance access bridges to manage watercourses across the UK. These bridges include a wide spectrum of configurations, ranging from short-spanning, simply-supported concrete slabs to 73-metre-long Bailey bridges. Some were recently constructed, some are over 200 years old, and several have been listed by National Heritage. Many of the bridges are accessible to the public, some along remote rural paths with others in more urban environments. Regular inspections are therefore critical, and this is where Stantec come in. Stantec were commissioned to complete over a hundred inspections in a 12-month period from February 2020 with 74 to be completed within 6 weeks of contract award.

Besides the complexity of bridge variety, the sites were spread across five counties, which posed a significant logistical exercise for the inspection team in managing the programme effectively and safely. Despite the major constraints presented by the COVID-19 outbreak—which occurred in the middle of the commission—we completed the inspection programme on time, within budget, and without any accidents or injuries.

This was the first major commission that we have delivered in collaboration with Jackson Civil Engineering through the EA Next Generation Supplier Arrangement (NGSA) Collaborative Delivery Framework (CDF)and it proved highly successful.