The bridge, designed and installed by Serious Stages, was erected to allow visitors to get from north car parks situated on the other side of River Thames, to the festival site. The team from TAO, managed by fire director Chris Harvey, supplied river rescue personnel stationed on Jet Skis whilst the bridge was moved into position by a 250 tonne crane.
Management of the positioning was undertaken by Serious Stages' Kenny Falconer, under the watchful eye of site manager Dick Tee.
TAO's Chris Harvey said, "Our brief was to provide rapid water rescue for the crews assembling and positioning the structure. Due to the width of the river at that point we needed to station Jet Skis with water rescue personnel up and down stream of the structure."
Both bridge installation and de-rig went without incident. Andy Cotton, head of TAO Group said, "We have had more and more enquiries for river rescue provision since we instituted the service for the launch of the BT Round the World Yacht Race in 2008."
(Jim Evans)
