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The Netherlands is among the global leaders in the design, construction, and maintenance of complex civil engineering structures. Bridges are an important part of this. Due to aging, weather conditions, and intensive use, these structures require increasingly specialized inspection, cleaning, and maintenance.
For the Municipality of Utrecht, Sky People was tasked with solving a unique challenge at the Prins Claus Bridge in Utrecht: thoroughly cleaning the stays of this striking cable-stayed bridge.
A custom solution for stay cable maintenance
Due to their length, inclination angle, and position above the surrounding area, the stay cables of a cable-stayed bridge are not easily accessible. Traditional working methods such as scaffolding or aerial work platforms are therefore not always practical or efficient to deploy.
For this project, Sky People therefore developed a specialized cleaning robot that could independently drive along the bridge's stay cables.
The robot was equipped with six rotary dirt blasters and cleaned the stay cables at an operating pressure of no less than 500 bar, combined with water at a temperature of up to approximately 90°C. This enabled atmospheric deposits, organic pollution, and other contaminants to be effectively removed from the surface.
Through the combination of robotic technology, high-pressure cleaning, and specialized accessibility, the stay cables could be cleaned in a controlled manner and over long lengths.
Innovative accessibility during major bridge maintenance
Maintenance of civil engineering structures increasingly demands solutions where accessibility is a determining factor. Especially in the case of cable-stayed bridges, steel bridge structures, pylons, arches, and cable systems, conventional access methods can have major consequences for planning, traffic disruption, and implementation costs.
Sky People therefore combines rope access with specially developed tools and robotics. Depending on the project, our technicians can perform work on virtually all parts of a bridge structure, without extensive scaffolding always being necessary.
This approach makes it possible to carry out specialized work in a targeted manner and thus forms an interesting solution within major maintenance, renovation, and preservation of bridges and other civil engineering structures.
From cleaning to inspection and preservation
Cleaning the stays of the Prins Claus Bridge is one example of the work that Sky People can perform within civil infrastructure.
Our rope access teams can be deployed for, among other things, bridge inspections, visual inspections, NDT, steel inspections, cleaning of bridge structures, maintenance of stay cables and suspension cables, concrete inspections, concrete repair, preservation work, coating repair, welding and assembly work, and work on hard-to-reach parts of structures.
In doing so, we look not only at how technicians can reach a location, but above all at how the complete work can be carried out as safely, efficiently, and with as little disruption as possible.
Specialist in hard-to-reach civil structures
With the upcoming renovation and maintenance task of Dutch bridges, viaducts, locks, and other civil engineering structures, specialized accessibility is becoming increasingly important.
Sky People supports main contractors, infrastructure companies, governments, and asset owners in operations where traditional access methods are not possible, not practical, or insufficiently efficient.
From a one-off specialized inspection to the complete execution of work on a bridge structure: we collaborate from the work preparation stage onward to determine the most suitable execution method.
A civil structure where accessibility is a challenge? Sky People collaborates on a safe and practical solution using rope access, specialist access techniques, and custom equipment.
