Rope Access

Today was my first experience with a rope access inspection down in Cumberland RI on a pedestrian bridge. The bridge was part of our fracture critical inspection assignment and would have been $30,000 to rig. Using rope access saved the state money and time. Three RIDOT bridge group members even came to the bridge to see this in action.

Rope access is used in many countries but is still not common in the United States. Since rope access does not have regulations like many other forms of inspection techniques, it is important to be properly trained and to have redundant safety measures like having SPRAT certified technicians.

Rope access was used for most of the bridge but some parts were inspected from the ground. The ends of the bridge were fairly close to the ground which allowed the use of ladders.

Unfortunately the ends of the bridge were also guarded by two horrible smells. The West end of the bridge was located close to a sewer line and happened to be near a manhole. The East end smelt of a skunk, fortunately we were not able to confirm if there was a skunk there or not.