Why temporary-works design should begin by asking what suitable engineered connections the existing asset already provides.
Concrete Jersey barriers are everywhere on infrastructure projects.
They divide traffic, create exclusion zones, protect workers and, once placed, project teams tend to treat them as finished objects.
NON-DRILL sees something else.Many barriers already contain lifting anchors used during manufacture and placement. Once the barrier is installed, those connections may still have value.
Across different projects, NON-DRILL has used suitable Jersey-barrier lifting anchors as part of engineered solutions for signage, hoarding, cyclist rails and covered walkways.
Those are very different temporary-works requirements.The underlying question is the same:
Why create another fixing before checking whether a suitable one already exists?
Drilling is sometimes the answer. It shouldn't automatically be the first question.
This is not an argument that every lifting anchor can support every temporary structure. It cannot.
The anchor type, capacity, location, barrier geometry, proposed loads and complete system all need to be considered.
Wind loading matters for hoarding and covered walkways.
Offset loads matter when signage is moved away from the face of the barrier.
A cyclist rail creates a different load case again.
The engineering changes. The philosophy doesn't.
Start with the asset that is already there, understand what connections it provides, then determine whether those connections can form part of the temporary-works solution.
Sometimes they cannot. But when they can, the project may avoid drilling, additional concrete footings, separate blocks, extra frames or unnecessary reinstatement later.
Use the structure intelligently
This is becoming an important part of the NON-DRILL approach.
We don't think temporary works should automatically sit beside, around or on top of permanent and hired structures as though those structures have nothing to contribute.
Sometimes the smarter solution is to use an appropriate connection that has already been engineered into the asset.
That is particularly valuable for Jersey barriers because they are so common, so often relocated and so frequently hired.
A temporary requirement should not necessarily mean permanent modification.
The question we want more project teams to ask is simple:
What is this structure already giving us that we haven't used yet?
That is where better temporary-works design often begins.