They Make A Nice Couple!

Geoenvironmental Engineer, Jay Fox, has been under considerable stress recently following a special commission from the Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors Joint Venture (FCBC) in Roysth, Scotland.

Remedial work is proposed for the Forth Road Bridge and the FCBC asked HBPW to witness testing of rebar couplers and headed anchors at the supplier’s testing facility in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

The project meant that Jay had to make a series of visits to Ancon Building Products over a period of two months while the extended tests were carried out.

Couplers are used to simplify the design and construction of reinforced concrete and reduce the amount of reinforcement required, reducing material and construction costs.

“For each new supplier of rebar there is a Quality Assurance requirement to prove the quality of the coupled splices and to ensure all resulting products are fit for purpose,” said Jay.

A specialist machine was used to carry out tensile, slip and fatigue tests on coupled bars (test splices). “We were there as an independent witness on behalf of the FCBC to ensure that the tests were carried out in accordance with the UKCARES Technical Approval Process,” added Jay.