Tate Britain - Project - Lyndon Scaffolding

The access work at Tate Britain has to be one of the most challenging refurbishment projects carried out in London.

The project when complete will result in the total refurbishment of the Tate Britain galleries.

To enable the gallery roofs to be re-constructed a large complex temporary roof structure had to be provided.

What made this roof so complex was the minimal amount of support points and differing heights provided by the existing and new structures.

This resulted in there being six individual temporary roof covers required, each interlinked and connecting with each other to form a final scaffold structure which had the necessary rigidity required to satisfy Tate Britain’s consultant engineers.

The only way to erect the 24m long trusses for main spans was to use a 250 tonne mobile crane which had to be exactly positioned in the only available location in a tight compound.

The lifts had the added complication of not being able to slew across the live galleries which surrounded these phase 1 works.

Lyndon SGB delivered these trusses pre-formed in half so that all that was needed was one connection then the truss could be lifted in – minimising crane time and erection period.

Each gallery had stepped birdcage access decks to give access to roofs and walls – all of these materials had to be walked in and out from the one compound.

Tate Britain - Project - Lyndon Scaffolding
Tate Britain - Project - Lyndon Scaffolding

The only way to erect the 24m long trusses for main spans was to use a 250 tonne mobile crane which had to be exactly positioned in the only available location in a tight compound.

The lifts had the added complication of not being able to slew across the live galleries which surrounded these phase 1 works.

Lyndon SGB delivered these trusses pre-formed in half so that all that was needed was one connection then the truss could be lifted in – minimising crane time and erection period.

Each gallery had stepped birdcage access decks to give access to roofs and walls – all of these materials had to be walked in and out from the one compound.

Tate Britain - Project - Lyndon Scaffolding
Tate Britain - Project - Lyndon Scaffolding