Temporary works training course study Pack - Book - Page 107
Case Study 1
The Loddon Bridge Disaster, Berkshire, October 1972
About
1130
The Loddon Bridge disaster was a collapse of falsework during construction of a reinforced
concrete deck on the Loddon Bridge of the A329(M) in Berkshire, England, on 24 October 1972.
It killed three people and injured ten others. It is thought that a design error led part of the
falsework, transitioning between the deck and the supporting towers, to be understrength and
it failed by buckling or twisting. The part-poured deck fell into the river below. The collapse was
investigated
by Her
Majesty's
Factory
Inspectorate and
the
contractor, Marples
Ridgway pleaded guilty to a breach of the construction regulations at a trial in Bracknell, being
fined £150 (equivalent to £2,291 in 2023).
The
collapse
led
to
the Advisory
Committee
on
Falsework,
chaired
by Brunel
University vice-chancellor Stephen Bragg and consequently known as the Bragg Report. The
committee, whose final report was published in 1975, made a number of recommendations for
changes in how falsework was designed, constructed and dismantled. These formed the basis
of British Standard 5975 The Code of Practice for Falsework, published in 1982. The Bragg
Report had a wider impact on how temporary works were managed in the UK including
establishing procedures and the position of temporary works coordinator.
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