Manchester Airport Skylink

The Scope

Vertical Access were commissioned to carry out a roof leak survey of the sky link bridges at Manchester airport that was built in the 1990’s to establish possible mechanisms of water ingress.

Over 6000 square meters were surveyed by our inspection team using  mobile access platforms & work restraint systems.

The Challenge

The challenge was to carry out the essential survey work, working around access restrictions at a very busy international airport while causing minimal disruption to its operation and the travelling public.

The Vertical Approach: Safety, Quality, Innovation & Agility

Safety

As with all Vertical Access projects safety was paramount.

This is achieved through the Vertical Access team who have an outstanding attitude to safety culture which is made apparent during the frequent management site visits and safety inspections.

Quality

Quality is at the core of who Vertical Access are.

On this project, this was expressed through the commitment of the team to deliver the information required by the client that clearly identified faults and by working beyond the agreed remit to identify mechanisms of water ingress.

Innovation

The site supervisor, site operatives, project manager and the Vertical Access digital resources manager worked together with the client to develop a bespoke recording digital Application to collate and display all the information gathered in a format to allow any faults to be easily viewed and located for repairs.

Agility

Our Vertical Access Project Manager had a close liaison between the airport management and the main contractor Project Managers during the planning and execution of the survey to ensure minimal impact on the day-to-day arrivals and departures of Manchester Airport. This was to ensure that the project goals were achieved as quickly and professionally as possible.

Vertical Access team showed our agility when the planned method of access, shift period, team size, skill set and programme needed to be changed as a result of the airport building maintenance unit access systems. This was further complicated by two of the Skylinks being out of service and unable to be repaired.

The safe system of work and access system was quickly changed to mobile elevated platforms which required additional operatives & further training and needed to be carried out during night shifts with traffic management.

Vertical Access worked with the client to quickly risk assess, plan and change the safe system of work to accommodate this.

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Outcome & Feedback

This successful project came in on time and under budget.

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