Lead time is the number buyers watch, but site readiness is what decides whether the installation week goes smoothly. Our slot is around 60 days from a confirmed drawing, and that window covers fabrication, surface treatment, load-cell fitting, factory calibration and packing. The civil, electrical and access work on the client's ground runs in parallel. When the two programmes meet without a shared drawing, the machine arrives to a site that is not ready for it.
Work backwards from the drawing
Before any concrete is ordered, fix the specification: capacity class, deck dimensions, module count, pit or pitless arrangement, static or weigh-in-motion sensing, and the orientation of the deck on the site. The issued drawing governs the final machine, so the foundation drawing and the deck drawing have to be read as one set. A pit that is a few centimetres out, or a pier set to the wrong datum, is expensive to correct after a 100 ton module is already on a truck at the gate.
Assign responsibilities early. Our own engineering, manufacturing, installation and maintenance teams can take the installation scope when engaged; otherwise a distributor or local contractor builds to our drawings. Either way, one party should own the interface between civil works and equipment, because that interface is where schedules slip.
Confirm the commercial frame at the same time: minimum order 1 unit, payment by T/T, and a choice of EXW, FCA, FOB, CNF, CIF, DAP or DDP. Who carries freight and duties affects who is on site to receive, offload and position the deck. The price guide explains how foundation type and installation scope move a quotation, so the civil budget and the equipment budget are built from the same assumptions.
Foundation: pit or pitless
The first civil decision is whether the deck sits in a pit or above grade. A pit-mounted scale needs a reinforced concrete pit sized to the deck, with walls that resist soil pressure, a level base for the load cell mounts and a sump or drain. The deck finishes flush with the road, which suits sites where vehicles approach from a flat yard and where ramp length or headroom is limited.
A pitless arrangement places the deck on piers or a shallow raft with approach ramps at each end. It keeps the structure clear of standing water and makes the underside easier to inspect, at the cost of ramp length and a small rise in the traffic path. On sites with a high water table, poor drainage or a history of flooding, pitless is often the lower-risk choice because there is no pit to pump out after a storm.
Weigh-in-motion changes this again. The 58 mm wide-flange plate sensor is buried directly with no civil pit, is rated IP68 for the buried environment and carries 150% overload. Full-wheel load integration cancels eccentric and irregular driving error and returns +/- 0.5% dynamic accuracy across 1-100 km/h. For that subsystem the preparation is a correctly graded lane rather than a deep pit. The installation and service page sets out which civil scope applies to each arrangement, so the foundation is specified to the sensing method and not the other way round.
Drainage and keeping water out
Water is the most persistent enemy of a weighbridge. A pit that fills becomes a pump maintenance job and, in cold climates, an ice problem; standing water around load cells and junction boxes invites corrosion and signal faults. Grade the surrounding yard away from the scale and provide a drain with a maintainable sump on pit designs.
Our steel deck design helps here: the U-section is welded into a fully closed cavity, so there are no open channels inside the structure where water can sit, and the Sa2.5 blasted surface with a double-sided, double-layer coating at a dry film of at least 120 um protects the steel before it ships. Keeping the outside of the structure drained is the client's half of the same job. Good coating and bad drainage will still produce a short service life.
On bulk-material and mining sites, plan for wash-down. Provide a place for wash water to go that is not the pit, and keep the junction boxes and cable routes above the expected water line. The load cell and sensor data page describes the instrumentation that needs to stay dry, including the wide-flange sensor assembly used for direct-bury weighing.
Drainage is cheaper to design in than to add later. Once the deck is in place, adding a fall, a sump or a cable duct means breaking concrete around a calibrated machine and repeating the commissioning checks.
Power, data and the control point
A modern weighbridge is a measuring instrument with a small plant room attached. Provide a stable power supply to the control point, with protection and an earth appropriate to the local standard, and run a data route from the deck junction box to the indicator or cabinet. Where the site will be unattended, the data acquisition subsystem, image and video capture, licence plate recognition and an LED information board all need power and a network path to the same control point.
Our software side supports 7x24 unattended operation, offline local caching when the link drops, and multi-site central management, but those features assume a powered, connected cabinet. Decide early whether the cabin is a new structure or an existing office, and how far the cable run is.
For weigh-in-motion and enforcement sites, add the capture and display positions to the layout drawing at the same time as the power design. The wide-flange sensor assemblies sit in the lane while the electronics live at the control point, and the two are only as reliable as the cable between them.
Approaches, access and commissioning day
The traffic path is part of the installation. Approaches should be straight and level for at least a vehicle length on each side so a driver can bring the whole vehicle onto the deck and stop without braking on the platform. Braking on the deck applies shear to the load cells and unsettles the reading. Provide enough width for the longest vehicle to align squarely, and mark the stop position so different drivers settle in the same place and produce repeatable results.
Plan delivery access too. A modular ZDG-type deck and a 100 ton class platform arrive as heavy assemblies; confirm that the access road, gate and turning radius can take the delivery vehicle and any crane, and that there is a level place to set the modules down. A site that can receive a truck but not position a crane will lose a day at the most expensive moment.
At commissioning, the deck is levelled, the load cells are connected, the indicator is calibrated and the whole system is checked against the drawing. Because our teams cover installation and maintenance, the same specification that governed fabrication governs the handover. Trusted in 70+ countries with an annual output of 10,000+ units, we still commission each site against its issued drawings rather than a generic sheet, and the construction detail is the reference the crew works from.
| Item | What to prepare | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Issued drawing | Deck dimensions, orientation, module count | Foundation and deck must agree |
| Foundation | Pit with sump, or pitless piers and ramps | Level, load-bearing base for the cells |
| Drainage | Fall away from scale, maintainable sump | Keeps water off cells and junction boxes |
| Power and data | Protected supply and cable route to control point | Stable readings, unattended operation |
| Approaches | Straight, level, at least one vehicle length | Whole vehicle on deck, no braking on it |
| Delivery access | Road, gate, turning radius, crane set-down | Modules arrive and position without delay |
| Commissioning | Levelling, calibration, check against drawing | Handover on the same specification |
When the drawing is agreed, send the soil condition, water table, pit or pitless preference and the site country to our engineering desk through the contact page. We return the foundation and interface requirements in writing, so the civil programme and the roughly 60-day fabrication window finish together and the scale is commissioned on ground that was built for it.