TPA’s temporary roadways help BAM to drive off Storm Melissa.
The first experience of TPA Portable Roadways by the Kilsyth GI team at leading construction, facilities management and property developer BAM Construct UK was during Storm Melissa off the west coast of Scotland.
BAM’s Kilsyth GI team had selected TPA over two other suppliers to provide temporary access at their site in Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, off Scotland’s north-west coast. The project is supporting the improvement of existing infrastructure and the increasing generation of transmission needs in the Western Isles.
By the time the 1,500 TPA panels were due to be delivered in the autumn of 2025, Storm Melissa had started to make her mark. But undeterred, and with constant communication between TPA’s logistics team, BAM, and external haulage and ferry providers, the panels were installed to the agreed schedule.
The TPA panels provided ground protection and temporary roadways for work equipment and vehicles across soft and uneven peatland which reached a depth of one metre in places. To overcome these challenges, the 3m heavy-duty aluminium panels and four steerable panels were installed in a double element configuration - a layer of 7.5m panels with an additional 6m on top to spread the weight evenly across the panels.
This formation allowed BAM to access their borehole location withstanding weight up to 7.5 tonnes on soft ground, with the TPA panels remaining on site for two months to support the contractor’s ongoing work before project plans are finalised
BAM project manager (GI North) Jamie Lodge said: “We approached three subcontractors at the time and the TPA submission represented the best value, and despite the freezing winter conditions and uneven and soft ground, the TPA panels performed just as expected".
“TPA were very collaborative in the approach. Installation and disassembly was ongoing throughout the works as we were given access to sections to start while installation was ongoing elsewhere, as well as relocating panels from completed sections to new sections".