UKH

Can anyone offer a solution for the most practical way to ensure a safe swing on a viaduct with stone arches?

I have already visited the bridge we plan to set up our swing on, and I measured all the relevant areas. The bridge is 4.75m wide at the top, the centre arch we intend to swing through is 12.5m wide, and the bridge is 33m tall. 

Our plan is to tie off the anchors with doubled up slings and screw gates attached to the metal supports at the top of the bridge.These will be attached 14m apart, so in the centre of each stone pillar. We will then run two static ropes down in a V, and attach 2 dynamic ropes to this V which will then attach to the swinger via a chest harness and 2 carabiners. Finally, we will have a separate static rope with a Grigri attached that can be lowered to the swinger, and once they stop swinging they can then lower themselves down to the floor. 

The idea is the V prevents the swinger going off axis and making contact with the bridge, however this set up has a lot of different parts so there is a greater risk of one of the parts failing. Originally I wanted to jump on two dynamic ropes set at different lengths, but that relies on the swinger jumping perfectly straight. 

Does this seem like a sensible approach? How would you rig up a swing to ensure the swinger does not make contact with the bridge under any circumstance? 

I have attached a link to photos of the exact bridge below. Any advice or ideas would be appreciated!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/k-burn/14097408904

https://www.flickr.com/photos/k-burn/13910230878/in/photostream/

Int days of olde you just tied off a rope in the middle of span with an Italian hitch, loads of edge protection, then obviously used a second rope temporarily to lift it up the opposite side and off you pop... if you jump off the middle of one side and your rope is anchored near enough the middle of the other you'll swing straight. 

Note, there are slightly more backed up methods available!!! 

Don't forget the spare undercrackers

The things I'd be most concerned about would be:

• Staying safe while rigging.
• Security of anchors, the masonry they're in and any bits the rope contacts.
• Abrasion.
• Stretch.
• Avoiding tangles
• A reliable and redundant way down.
• Wires and trees.
• Other users of the bridge if you rig across the carriageway.

Jumping vaguely straight will deal with not hitting piers.

jk

Is there an option to anchor near the apex of the arch you intend to swing through? I have no idea about this sort of thing but the first thought that crossed my mind was that if you have 2 anchors, one at each pillar, that if one of them fails for whatever reason, it will guarantee that the jumper slams straight into the bridge. 

As opposed to what happens if a single anchor fails ?

Yes, we could anchor directly over the apex of the arch on the metal struts for the railings. However this will mean the rope is hanging straight down and therefore chance of wobble is increased. In order to create the V I think anchoring at two points makes the most sense. 

I have found a video by DMM showing how to rig the exact swing we are looking to do:

youtube.com/watch?v=BNu8Y2SIeGY&

Just minus the Landrover anchor 

Have you factored in the potential increase in load on the anchors by rigging it this way?

Also, are you rigging off the handrail supports? They are not normally designed to take any significant amount of weight

Just ask chatGPT.

sigh.

And what are they attached to?

edit: just saw the vid. Posts cast into a concrete rail is less worrying than individual parapet capstones on old mortar. Still, I'd tie off a few posts and rig it across the bridge deck so that if anything did pull loose it wouldn't fall into the arc of the swing.

jk

Pick a bridge with a river below it. Conisborough Viaduct is perfect.

Or trains. 

this has a river beneath it although its not very large 

the bridge is abandoned. Nothing coming over from either side.

Tame.

youtube.com/watch?v=LI3dzRqgdYw&

Porthkerry Viaduct. (Not me jumping btw).

V method is correct, although the ropes got tied in directly back in the day. Lots of stuff on edges to protect the rope. Now, set it up with a well weighted sack to check it’s ok, most importantly the amount of drop before the swing takes over through the arch.

There used to be a Beal ad with Andy Pollitt bridge jumping at Mondale Head

I think it was Geoff Birtles who used to take stick for doing this until a sack came back sliced down one side…..

Its also possible to lose your voice completely after the big scream when you’re upside down on the other side of the arch

Isn't there a memorial plaque on a bridge in the Costa Blanca to some poor guy who 'missed' the gap?

Hi

Thanks for your mail; probably best if I reply on here.

Nobody can advise you if your plan to jump a bridge we don't know, off anchors we can't see, is safe.  People are possibly a little wary with someone with no profile on the site, who joined yesterday, apparently in order to ask this question.  Are you Dylan?

The DMM approach seems ok - but is a lot more complicated than I have used.  If you test it well with a heavy rucksac and start with a short length (i.e. tucked quite close under the bridge) you should be able to assess if the additional complexity is worthwhile.

JK has listed the key considerations above.  The only one I'd add is that, if you go for a bigger drop (more rope out) and have multiple ropes, there's more to snag your neck on.

Please don't put video on the internet!

So come on, tell us the name of this viaduct.

It's named on the photos

I wouldn't have attached the ropes to my harness via screwgates, I'd have tied on directly through the usual loops!

Didn't Ricky Bell and crew do this in their 'Underdeveloped' film a few years back, and showed the bolting anchor set-up?

Great! In fact the bridge looks well high enough to put some slack in the system for extra freefall.

E

Thanks for your reply. Sorry my profile looks a bit suspicious... Although there was good info in some of the other forum threads on this site, I wanted to get peoples advice specific to this type of viaduct, as most of the information was related to bridges with open space underneath.

Still plenty to consider and plan, but some very useful information so far!

Yes me either, i was very surprised they placed their lives in the trust of a single belay loop!

Although untying to rappel down may take a little longer I think the security of being correctly tied into the harness is worth it. 

Just watched the section in "underdeveloped", looks brilliant fun, our voices might be a little sore the next day haha!

Are you Dylan?

We used to do this regularly on a viaduct in Lancashire and we got the system dialled after a few goes.

Here's how we did it (if you're squeamish look away now)

The bridge parapet wall was solid and built out of large gritstone blocks. Easily big enough and secure enough to place some bolts which is what we did.

We found that lowering the climber if the swing ropes were fixed to the bolts was a real faff so instead of fixing them we used two figure 8 descenders, one on each bolt with a person holding each rope tight. Then after the jumper had stopped swinging we just lowered them to the ground.

Then we lowered a tag line down the other side and pulled the two swing ropes back into position.

As protection we threaded a length of garden hose pipe over the sections of the swing ropes that were touching any of the bridge.

After some experimenting you could get the swinger to do some epic freefalls and almost skim the ground.

The sketchiest jump was when I larks footed and duct taped a sling around my ankles and swallow dived off.

Have fun.

E

Who is Dylan? 

Another chap who only asked about this, having joined just prior, and lives in the same bit of Scotland as you