Precision under pressure: JR Scaffold Services at Cockenzie Power Station

JR Scaffold Services has completed a technically demanding re-insulation and re-cladding project at Cockenzie Power Station in East Lothian, delivering bespoke scaffolding for civil remedial works at the site’s 275kV building.

Working for Luddon Construction and Scottish Power Energy Networks on a contract worth £1.6m, the team had to provide full access to every corner of the building so that asbestos cladding and other harmful materials could be safely removed. Getting there took three years of detailed pre-project planning followed by 11 months on site.

The scope covered internal and external scaffolding across 15 distinct zones, some of them up to 23 metres high, inside a live power facility. The whole operation was tied to a strict-phased power outage schedule. A missed deadline would not simply have delayed the job, it could have disrupted regional power supplies and triggered financial penalties for the principal contractor, so every stage of installation and dismantling had to be planned precisely and followed to the letter.

Four experienced scaffold operatives and a supervisor were on site daily, erecting more than 7,500 square metres of scaffolding across the 15 zones. The design used a mix of Cuplok galvanised steel system scaffold and tube and fitting, the latter where intricate solutions were needed in hard-to-reach areas, alongside beams in varying sizes and cantilevered sections.

With no diesel-powered machinery permitted inside the power plant, the company purchased two electric scissor lifts with a 22 metre working height, which stayed on site for the duration. Materials were handled below shoulder height, placed on the scissor lift and raised slowly into position to eliminate any risk of dropping materials near electrical transformers and equipment.

The scaffold had to adapt to everything from ground level to existing steel beams, mezzanines and cantilevered sections, while the team worked around obstructive structural steel and contaminated surfaces including bird and bat guano. Each of those required engineering assessment and problem solving on site.

JR Scaffold Services worked closely with Luddon Construction and with environmental specialists Enviraz Scotland and Pro Industrial Roofing and Cladding to make sure every consideration was built into the design. Final plans drew on shared input from scaffold supervisors, directors and design engineers, with detailed calculations informing material selection and layout around access points, hazards and other site interactions.

The measure of success was timing. Every section had to be erected and struck within a precise window, and every one of them was.