Protecting vital utility services

Background

Bridges don’t just carry vehicles and pedestrians. A bridge crossing the A81 at Balfron Station carries water pipes that are used to service the North of Glasgow and as such is a key piece infrastructure that needs to be protected from issues such as bridge strikes.

Having previously been struck by high vehicles, Scottish Water implemented a protection project that included reinforcing the bridge structure and deploying our Over-height Vehicle Detection System (OVD).

Solution

The Coeval OVD systems are installed to provide advance warning to high sided vehicles approaching the bridge. This allows these vehicles to take an alternative route to avoid the striking the bridge and potentially damaging the water pipes as well as the structure itself.

Coeval carried out a full turnkey installation project including civils works to enable four OVD systems with three OVD message signs to inform and advise the drivers of over-height vehicles.

Outcome

The implementation of Over-height Vehicle Detection has formed a key part of this bridge protection project and not only prevents damage to the structure and the vehicles involved but also prevents delays on the A81 route. The use of the signs to re-route tall vehicles ensures large HGV traffic continues on main arterial routes and not through small communities.