One system and two solutions on canal project

Scaffolding erectors working on locks at the Danube-Black Sea Canal in Romania have used equipment from Germany Layher Allround Scaffolding to build platform stairway towers and bridges.

Needing a safe solution that also met the timescale of the project, the work required two stairway towers on each lock for fast and safe access to the lock chambers and a temporary bridge for fast crossing of the lock.

The project used the platform stairway, a one-piece and quick-to-fit stairway with entry and exit landing. For each lock, scaffolders built two unidirectional Allround platform stairway towers, each 20 metres high, for independent access, with each tower anchored to the lock wall every four metres.

Thanks to the bolt-free Allround wedge-head connection, it was possible to build each stairway tower in only one day – ensuring safer and more convenient upward and downward movement in the lock during the modernisation work.

The bridges, with spans of 15 and 26 metres, were also quick to construct. The Allround Bridging System is a modular lattice beam in which wide-span bridges using bolt-free pin and wedge-head connections can be built just as quickly as support beams for heavy loads.

It can be preassembled on the ground, section by section, and then positioned by crane. Layher steel decks with their perforated surface profile ensured not only high stability in bad weather conditions, but also a non-slip surface.

The 96-km Danube-Black Sea Canal runs from Cernavodã on the Danube to Constanţa and Nãvodari on the coast, shortening the distance between the points by more than 400 km.

Layher Allround Scaffolding, based in Gueglingen-Eibensbach in Baden-Württemberg in the south of Germany, has been in existence for more than 70 years and operates in 35 countries.