An aluminium bridge supplier should be able to hand over five things without hesitation. Three of them establish conformity: a valid EN 1090-3 certificate naming the correct execution class, a Declaration of Performance for the structural components, and Eurocode 9 design calculations for your specific load case. The other two govern what happens afterwards, an inspection and test plan and a maintenance manual covering the declared service life. If any of those takes more than a day to produce, the reason is usually that it does not exist yet.
Most published guidance on EN 1090 is written by certification bodies, for fabricators, and about steel. This one is written the other way round: for the person evaluating tenders, about aluminium, and about what to do when the paperwork arrives incomplete.
EN 1090 is three standards, and the part number matters
EN 1090 is not a single document. Part 1 sets the rules for conformity assessment and CE marking of structural components, part 2 governs the execution of steel structures, and part 3 governs the execution of aluminium structures. A supplier certified only to EN 1090-2 is certified for steel fabrication, which says nothing about their competence to weld and assemble aluminium alloys.
This distinction gets lost constantly, because both certificates look almost identical and both carry the same notified body logo. The welding processes differ, the material groups differ, and the qualification requirements for welders differ. Aluminium welding under EN 1090-3 typically uses process 131 or 141 to EN ISO 4063, against 135 for structural steel, and the material groups are drawn from the 22 and 23 series rather than the 1 series.
When you read a certificate, find the line that names the standard and the line that names the product. On a genuine aluminium certificate the product reads as aluminium structure elements and the applied standard reads EN 1090-3. DR VERSLAS holds Kiwa certificate 2268-CPR-434 for aluminium structure elements under EN 1090-3, and a separate certificate 2268-CPR-435 for steel elements under EN 1090-2, which is how the two are supposed to appear.
Execution class: why EXC2 and EXC3 are not interchangeable
The execution class defines how rigorously the structure is made and inspected, and it is the single specification line most often left blank in public tenders. Four classes exist, from EXC1 for the least demanding components to EXC4 for structures where failure carries extreme consequences. For a public footbridge or a cycle crossing carrying pedestrians over a road or a railway, EXC3 is the class that normally applies.
The practical difference is inspection depth. Moving from EXC2 to EXC3 increases the proportion of welds subject to non-destructive testing and tightens the acceptance criteria for imperfections. It also adds requirements on welding coordination personnel and expands the records the manufacturer has to retain. A supplier certified to EXC2 can legally produce EXC2 work only. If your specification says EXC3 and their certificate says EXC2, that is not a paperwork gap you can close after award.
| Standard | Covers | Typical welding process |
| EN 1090-1 | Conformity, CE marking | Not applicable |
| EN 1090-2 | Steel execution | 135 (MAG) |
| EN 1090-3 | Aluminium execution | 131 (MIG), 141 (TIG) |
The Declaration of Performance and how to read it
The Declaration of Performance is the legal instrument through which a manufacturer takes responsibility for the declared characteristics of a construction product under Regulation 305/2011/EU. It is not a marketing certificate and not a quality award, and no third party issues it. The manufacturer writes it, signs it, and carries the liability for what it says.
Two things are worth checking before anything else. The first is whether the declared characteristics actually cover the performance your project depends on, because a declaration that lists material properties while staying silent on load-bearing capacity is technically valid and practically useless to you. The second is the assessment system, shown as system 2+ for structural components, which tells you a notified body audited the factory production control rather than the manufacturer self-declaring.
A Declaration of Performance always names the notified body by number. Kiwa Inspecta operates under number 2268, and that number appears on both DR VERSLAS certificates. You can check any notified body number against the European Commission’s NANDO database, which takes about a minute and occasionally produces a surprise.
What belongs in the delivery package besides the certificates
Certification proves that a factory is capable of producing conforming structures. It does not prove that the structure delivered to your site was designed for your loads, and the documents that establish that are separate.
Structural calculations to Eurocode 9 come first, because EN 1999 is the design code for aluminium and a set of calculations run to the steel Eurocode will not transfer. The calculations should name the load model you specified. For pedestrian and cycle structures that is normally a uniformly distributed load of 5 kN/m². Service vehicle and accidental load cases are added where the crossing has to accept maintenance traffic, and Load Model 1 with the relevant α-factors applies where the structure carries road loading.
An inspection and test plan should tell you which checks happen at which stage, who witnesses them, and what evidence is retained. Welding procedure specifications and their qualification records show that the joints in your structure were made to a qualified procedure rather than to a welder’s judgement. A maintenance manual should state what the declared service life assumes, because a fifty to eighty year design life is conditional on an inspection regime, and the conditions belong in writing.
BIM and CAD models matter for a different reason. If the structure has to be coordinated with abutment works, drainage or an existing bridge deck, the model is what lets your engineer verify fit before fabrication starts rather than after delivery.
Warning signs in a tender response
Three checks are worth making on every submission. Confirm that the certificate scan shows the validity field and the date of issue, rather than a cropped image that omits them. Confirm that the certificate names the manufacturing plant and not only a parent company or a trading entity, because factory production control is certified per plant rather than per brand. Confirm that the entity named on the certificate is the entity that will sign your contract.
Watch for responses that answer a request for EN 1090-3 documentation with an ISO 9001 certificate. Quality management certification is a reasonable thing to hold and DR VERSLAS holds it, but it is not a substitute: ISO 9001 describes how a company runs its processes, while EN 1090 describes whether it may place a structural component on the European market at all.
The last one is subtler. If a supplier quotes a delivery programme that does not include a distinct period for documentation, the documentation is being treated as an afterthought. On projektai co-funded through EU instruments such as CEF or ERDF the administrative pack is audited, and a structure that stands perfectly while its paperwork is incomplete can still hold up a payment claim.
What to write into the tender so you receive it
Specifications that produce complete responses tend to be specific in four places. Name the standard with its part number rather than writing EN 1090 alone. State the execution class and say that the tenderer’s certificate must cover it. List the deliverable documents individually instead of asking for a documentation pack, and set the language they must be supplied in. Finally, state the load model and the design service life, because those two lines are what let you compare quotations that would otherwise look like different products.
The comparison problem is real. Two prices for the same span can differ by a third simply because one tenderer priced EXC2 with a coated finish and the other priced EXC3 with anodising, and neither is wrong until the specification says which one you asked for. We set out the full document list in our public procurement checklist for certified aluminium structures, and the cost consequences of those choices in our analysis of aluminium and steel lifecycle cost.
Common questions from tender teams
Does CE marking on its own prove the structure is fit for my project?
No. CE marking confirms that the component may be placed on the European market and that its declared characteristics have been assessed under the Construction Products Regulation. Whether those declared characteristics match the loads, spans and exposure conditions of your site is a separate question, answered by the design calculations rather than by the marking.
Can a supplier upgrade from EXC2 to EXC3 during the contract?
Not within a normal project timescale. Extending the scope of an EN 1090 certificate requires the notified body to reassess factory production control against the higher class, which involves an audit rather than an administrative amendment. Treat the certificate in hand as the ceiling of what a tenderer can deliver.
Who is responsible if the declared performance turns out to be wrong?
The manufacturer who signed the Declaration of Performance. That is precisely why the document names a legal entity and an address, and why a declaration issued by a trading company rather than the fabricating plant should be questioned before award rather than after.
What should the maintenance manual actually contain?
The inspection intervals the service life assumes, the items to be inspected, the acceptance criteria, and the conditions that void the assumption. For anodised aluminium the regime is light, since the finish requires no painting or recoating, but light is not the same as absent, and an authority that cannot show an inspection record has a harder conversation at renewal time.
Working with DR VERSLAS
Every quotation we issue includes Eurocode 9 structural calculations, the EN 1090-1 declaration of performance, ISO 9001 quality records, CE marking documentation, BIM and CAD files, installation specifications and a maintenance plan, in formats accepted by EU public procurement authorities. Our aluminium execution certificate covers EXC3, we have delivered more than 500 projects across 25 European markets since 2009, and we supply a ten year structural warranty with a twenty-five year warranty on the anodised finish.
If you are preparing a specification, send us the span, the load classification and the site conditions. We will tell you which configuration fits and what the documentation package will contain, before you commit any of it to a tender notice. See our aluminium pedestrian bridges, dviračių tiltai ir industrial bridges and access walkways, or read more about our certification and capability.