Watson Towers, the Lanarkshire engineering group which specialises in steel structures, has helped to provide emergency patch-ups to two of Scotland’s key transport links in less than a month.
In December the Coatbridge-based company manufactured the steel plates which were used to repair cracked truss ends on the Forth Road Bridge, helping operators Amey reopen the bridge ahead of schedule.
Now the group’s construction arm Cairnhill Structures is busy producing steel masts, which will be used to help engineers reopen the West Coast main railway line after it was closed in December by storm and flood damage at the Lamington Viaduct near Carstairs.
The damage to the viaduct, which carries the West Coast Main Line over the River Clyde, was so serious that the line between Carlisle and Glasgow is expected to remain closed until March.
Neil Watson Group MD of Watson Towers Group said: “We are really pleased to be in a position to play a part, however modest, in restoring these major transport links.
“Producing the Forth Road Bridge truss end plates was an extremely time critical job, given the pressure everyone involved was under to have it re-opened in the build-up to Christmas.
“We were ideally placed to manufacture these parts as we carry steel stocks and we have invested heavily in state-of-the art computerised profiling and steel-cutting equipment and our workforce has the necessary skills.
“That meant we were able to provide the plates to the client’s specification in line with their very tight deadlines.
“Now we are concentrating on providing some of the steelwork required to effect repairs at the Lamington Viaduct”.
The £11-million turnover Watson Towers Group employs over 100 people at their factory in the former Sun Works in Coatbridge.
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