Tennants Bitumen choose Bruce for bespoke solution

Bruce Engineering design safe access system for loading bitumen into lorries

Belfast-based Tennants Bitumen are ideally located for the import and distribution of bituminous binders for the Northern Ireland road construction and maintenance industry.

With almost 100 years of operational expertise in the sector, Tennants Bitumen provide a comprehensive range of conventional and specialist binders including penetration-grade bitumen, polymer-modified binders, clear binders and bitumen emulsions.

Through local reputation Tennants were aware of the bespoke engineering services Bruce offered and contacted them with the objective to design a system to provide safe access onto their lorries to load bitumen without compromising the safety of the operator.

Tennants stated: ‘We needed to upgrade our loading facilities to offer the best possible protection to our operatives. We have improved access to our tanks and reduced the risk of a driver falling during loading operations.’

After working closely with Tennants the solution Bruce offered was a system with static access steps that the lorry can drive under allowing the operator to step onto a platform with a safety cage for edge protection. If an incident occurs the system not only protects the operator from the danger of falling from the lorry but also has a mechanism to quickly move the platform away from the lorry.

Tennants were extremely happy with the quality of standard and workmanship of the access steps and Steven Caldwell, general manager, commented: ‘Over the past year Tennants Bitumen have initiated an upgrade programme at our storage terminal.  Bruce Engineering have worked closely with Tennants Bitumen staff to develop a cost-effective solution to overcome circumstances in our depot. We are delighted with the outcome and look forward to working with Bruce in the future.’