The sunken barge gave a platform for scaffolding at the canalside offices in Camden Town.

Grange managing director Graham Rushworth and contracts manager Lee Holland

Published: 15 December, 2015
by DAN CARRIER

IT was not your usual scaffolding job for building restoration specialists Grange and Co – but with a little thought they came up with the answer.

Grange and their co-contractors Four Ways were due to fix the render of the Grade-II listed 1960 canalside office block known as Admiral House in Oval Road in Camden Town.

But one side of the seven-floor building drops into the Regent’s Canal – meaning there was no solid ground where for the scaffolding to be anchored to.

The scaffolding barge alongside Admiral House in the Regent’s Canal

The answer was to hire a barge, moor it alongside the building – and then sink it.

Grange managing director Graham Rushworth said: “We had to make sure there was a base that was steady and secure that we could build the scaffolding on – and the answer was to moor a barge at the base of the building, fill it with water and then use that.”

Mr Rushworth said it was the second time the barge had been used for the same purpose.

Contracts manager Lee Holland added: “In the past 30 years we have never done something like this before – but we did some research and found out that this very same barge had been used for this building 15 years ago. We found the owners and once the work has been completed, it will have the water pumped out, re-floated and used once again.”

Source: http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2015/dec/sunken-barge-provides-scaffolding-solution-canalside-offices

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