Renovating the Seattle Space Needle was an unprecedented engineering challenge. The work needed to be done 500 feet in the air, but traditional access methods weren’t viable. The Space Needle was too close to other buildings to use cranes and pre-built platforms couldn’t be lifted from the ground because of the way the Skyline Level, a group of rooms located 100 feet up, jutted out. Furthermore, standard scaffolding, although technically possible, would have meant prohibitive labor and material costs. Traditional scaffolding also would have required shutting down the Space Needle for the duration of the project — simply not an option for the Seattle tourist attraction.

Finding a solution required BrandSafway’s team to engineer a unique design, using the QuikDeck^® Suspended Access System, HAKI^® weather protection, Systems™ Scaffold and 12 two-part Tractel^® hoists for a never-before-seen solution.

Read the full article from the July/August issue of SAIA’s Scaffold & Access Magazine to learn how BrandSafway completed the project without dropped objects, injuries or recordables and without ever shutting down public access to the Seattle landmark.