Even in modern office and residential builds, service runs present many challenges. For industrial plants and automated factories, the challenges are much bigger. Industrial sites also have to accommodate traffic and try to remain future-proof, which means that burying conduits underground or embedding them in concrete walls is always to be avoided. The best solution is often the last considered – raising them on pipe racks and bridges.

Similar problems arise whether equipment is confined to a single building or spread across many acres. Either way, plants and workshops can usually make use of overhead space. Elevated support structures can get your pipe or service run from A to B by the most efficient route, freeing ground and wall space for other purposes and eliminating a host of safety risks. Designing them from modular components makes later re-routing relatively straightforward, and far cheaper.

Pipe bridges are often used for actual pipelines of gas or oil but are equally useful for power cables, wiring trays, compressed air, water, chemicals, vacuum extractors and pneumatic conveyors. Collecting multiple services together into “highways” also makes your interconnections easier to understand and facilitates service access and maintenance. They are as useful outdoors as in, and are often the quickest and cheapest way to interconnect buildings, span access roads and leapfrog obstacles. Racks can also support additional equipment and provide quick access to stopcocks and valves.

Galvanised steel is a popular material for constructing rack modules because it is strong, light and weatherproof, but other options are available depending on the structure’s purposes and environmental exposures. Walker Engineering have years of experience designing, assembling and installing equipment of this nature and will be happy to help you chart all your routing design opportunities.