Lot’s Ait is a small island or ‘ait’ in the river Thames at Brentford. The ait is the site of a historic boatyard where Thames and General Lighterage Company used to build and repair their fleet of barges. The boatyard fell into disuse in the 1960s and lay abandoned and derelict for over 50 years. With a change in ownership of the ait our client determined to restore and reactivate the boatyard. This project faced a number of challenges but the critical one has been to provide access and services to the ait.

When Thames and General Lighterage Company operated the boatyard it was connected to the mainland by a bridge of barges which completely blocked navigation to the north of the ait; such a floating bridge would not be allowed by the Port of London Authority (PLA) today. The solution was therefore to provide a footbridge from the shore to the ait. The PLA required the bridge to have an air draft of 3.7m above mean high water spring tide with no supporting piers in the river channel which necessitated a bridge of 50m span.

The bridge was built in one piece by MSO Marine at their Brentford yard and then craned onto a pontoon for delivery to site since no land based or floating crane large enough to lift the bridge could access the site. On 11 January the bridge was installed on a tidal lift; a stop motion video of the operation can be viewed here.

Mains services are currently being installed across the bridge to the ait ready for the new boatyard operation to commence in February 2012. Contractor for the ground works, services and site clearance was Mackley and the boatyard is to be operated by John’s Boat Works. The bridge is to be named the Barnes-Davies Bridge.