On Thursday 18th December we reached a landmark point in the refurbishment project as both of the bridge’s footways were once again opened to pedestrians and the famous illuminations were switched back on! You can one again enjoy those splendid city view from the bridge – but also enjoy the bridge bathed in warm white light between dusk and midnight every evening.
Our teams worked hard in December to get the bridge looking its best for you – so let’s take a look at what was happening…
The final hard-to-reach parts of the bridge were painted: teams were underground in the anchorage shafts where the suspension chains are fixed into the bedrock ensuring that every single part of the historic ironwork is protected from damp and oxidisation. Above ground, they abseiled over the side of the bridge to paint the ends of the parapet girders which run along the bridge’s walkway – this is the simplest and easiest way of reaching this part of the structure, but certainly not a job for the faint of heart!
Meanwhile as scaffolding was removed, painting crews worked at night to put the finishing touches to the road side of the chains. (Some spots were inaccessible while all the scaffolding was in place, and every single part of the chains needs to cleaned, inspected and freshly coated to ensure the longevity of the ironwork. It’s a very careful and precise sort of work and attention to detail is very important!)
Of course, there is no point in painting the bridge chains if the rest of the bridge isn’t made neat and tidy too – so we’ve also given the Victorian fences at the Sion Hill and Leigh Woods side of the bridge a fresh coat of black paint, as well as painting the bollards and fencing around the toll barriers. The clean up team then came through to remove any paint splashes from the footways and paving, jetwash the wooden splashboards along the side of the walkway, and ensure that all litter and debris was removed ready for reopening.
At the same time, our crew of lighting technicians and electricians were putting the brand new illuminations through their paces, resolving faults and issues and making sure the whole system worked just as intended. You may have been lucky enough to see some of the colour tests that took place during this work as the technicians made sure that the LED lights were able to respond to their programming. (And yes, it is now possible to light the bridge in colour, but this will only happen for a limited number special occasions during the year. As there is still more work to be completed behind the scenes, you won’t be seeing any displays quite yet – but we promise to make more information available on our website soon.)
Although both footways are now back open for the time being, the project is not yet complete. There may be some further temporary footway closures to follow, and crews will be with us well into the spring as they continue to work on the lighting and snagging (small additional painting and cleaning tasks) as well as the clearance of the works compound and the restoration of the green space with the Downs Ranger. We hope you have enjoyed reading these updates, and don’t forget to subscribe to our e-newsletter to keep up to date with the latest bridge news.