Building Briefs – August 11th

• Queensferry Crossing to close for load testing

Traffic management will be put in place during the works which will see one carriageway of Queensferry Crossing traffic at a time diverted over the Forth Road Bridge.

The northbound carriageway closure will take place between 22:00 on Saturday 15th August and 02:00 on Sunday 16th August.  The southbound closure will follow after that and all traffic management will be removed by 06:00 on Sunday 16th August.

The load verification test is one of the last remaining site activities for contractors FCBC.

• Footway widening begins in Bridgeton

Work started in Bridgeton yesterday to temporarily widen a section of the footway on Main Street as part of Glasgow City Council’s Spaces for People programme which is providing extra space for physical distancing to protect public health and suppress a resurgence of COVID-19.

Main Street, south of Dalmarnock Road, will see the road narrowed by two metres to accommodate footway widening; with an extension of double yellow lines added to its east side.

On-street parking will be unavailable in the affected area, with extra space for people made available by repurposing the immediate road space usually occupied by parked vehicles.

• Fencing firm branches out with rebrand

Pitlochry-based Robertson Fencing is looking to expand its workforce after relaunching under new branding.

The business is now known as Taiga Upland, and is bringing investment to Highland Perthshire through the opening of a £300,000 base, coupled with major expansion of its services portfolio.

Established in 2007, the company said it was originally known in forestry for providing modern fencing techniques and installation, and has since set up a forestry ground preparation enterprise. Its woodland creation offering will provide a combination of services for upland agri-forestry projects including forestry ground preparation, fencing and forestry infrastructure and groundworks.

• BCO releases lift and escalator guidance for reopening offices

The British Council for Offices (BCO) has today released new guidance for the safe use of escalators and lifts, as the country begins to return to the office.

The safe use of lifts and escalators has been a priority for the industry, with 90% of decision-makers and influencers in the commercial office sector saying they were worried about their safe use.

To help solve these headaches, the guidance emphasises the importance of social distancing and strict hygiene measures.

For lifts, this means reducing the amount of time that doors stay open, implementing queue controls, marking where users should stand and upgrading controls to make them touchless – something which could see the introduction apps that allow users to select their floor by phone, or buttons which are pressed by foot.

Escalator riders, meanwhile, can also expect to be told where to stand by markings, and to be guided by upgraded antimicrobial handrails.

The guidance suggests that masks should be worn, particularly in lifts, and that hand sanitising stations should be provided at both entry and exits points for lifts and escalators.

All this will make the office experience feel very different. An average 2,000kg escalator carries sixteen people, but will now be capped at just four.

Change, however, shouldn’t just be for COVID-19. The paper states that even if a vaccine is found, a future pandemic would necessitate the ‘same response’. To mitigate against future pandemics, the paper suggests more substantial design changes, which include fitting wide doors to lifts and improving their ventilation.