Business Profile
Wasted millions: incomplete painting specifications cost the rail industry dearly
Passing the costs of infrastructure maintenance on to the general public in rising fare prices is to be frowned upon when some of those costs could have been avoided, says coatings and corrosion expert David H Deacon
A
significant programme of refurbishing stations, bridges and other structures in the rail network across the UK (as well as overseas) continues apace. While much of it is to be applauded, one aspect of it might have been prevented and therefore should be firmly criticised..
In reviewing some of these
refurbishment projects, it has been very disappointing to encounter so many premature failures. It is also worrying
to note that the optimum life to first maintenance after a major repainting intervention is rarely achieved. Target life of modern coating systems applied correctly to well-prepared steel surfaces ought to last up to 30 years. The sad fact is that, instead of benefiting from coatings that last a generation, much rail infrastructure is failing in a fraction of that time. In some of the worst instances, failures have occurred within only five years.
Before getting too depressed about all this, let me give you an example of where things have gone right. The recent refurbishment and painting contract recently completed on the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland has a projected target life to next major maintenance of 25 years, but is more likely to be 30 or even 35 years. The Forth Rail Bridge, I hear you say? Isn’t that an old standing joke, that ‘Once we get to the end of the painting contract, we go back and start it all over again?’ This comment, passed down the ages over the past century, was apparently made by one of the local foremen, who spent his whole life painting and repainting the famous bridge.
The primary reason for the success
of the Forth Rail Bridge operation was that a detailed coatings survey of the condition of the old metal surfaces was carried out before repainting began. This established that the weathered coating system applied to the steelwork for more than 100 years – in some cases up to 28 layers deep – was unsuitable to overcoat with modern materials, regardless of the surface preparation.
It was therefore decided to completely
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