WATCH: ScaffFloat deploys pontoon project in Tanzania

ScaffFloat’s entire pontoon solution – which includes hoisting equipment – was made in Cornwall and packed into a standard shipping container before being sent to the central African country.

The company’s staff assembled the two 8m x 3m pontoons at the site, carried out trials and trained the customer as part of the hand-over.

It will provide remote support as the project progresses.

ScaffFloat’s pontoon system is modular and portable, and in this project is being used to maintain 100 separate piles supporting the jetty to the shoreline 1 kilometre away.

The pontoons provide workers with a safe platform that can be hoisted above the water around the full circumference of each pile.

Once hoisted, staging boards can be placed across gaps to create a full work platform that can be lowered and moved to the next pile within a few hours.

“This project perfectly demonstrates the true value of modularity and rapid deployment in complex international civils work,” said founder and MD of ScaffFloat Toby Budd, who called the African project a milestone for the company. “We didn’t just provide a pontoon, we engineered a bespoke, hoistable marine tool that directly addressed the client’s core challenge of efficient 360-degree access.”

ScaffFloat is a regular Seawork exhibitor and won the ‘Spirit of Innovation’ prize in 2019.

It will take its place as usual along the pontoons in Southampton next June.