Challenge

The Llanelli Millennium Coastal Park was created to celebrate the turn of the new millennium. The aim was to convert over 1,000 hectares of industrial dereliction into an eye-catching landscape that would complement and enhance the natural beauty of the estuary itself.

Architectural Street Furnishings (ASF) was commissioned to design a range of modern cast iron posts for use along the seafront and on top of a series of visually stunning look out towers.

In this extremely harsh environment a robust and high-quality finish on the posts and rails was imperative. 

Solution

ASF investigated the possibility of centrifugally galvanising the posts. Together with the use of marine grade stainless steel rails, separated from the cast iron posts using integral nylon sleeves in order to avoid any inter-metallic reaction, this proved extremely successful.

Three different, but co-ordinated, post styles were designed.

The posts used were hybrids of the company's ASF211 post, incorporating marine grade stainless steel rails. The cast iron was centrifugally galvanised to protect against rusting and deterioration caused by the marine environment. The stainless steel rails were satin brush polished to a maximum RA value of 0.5 to reduce the risk of contamination.

Outcome

After a 10 year project, the 22km of coastline along the northern shore of the Loughor Estuary has been transformed into a unique array of tourist attractions, wildlife habitats and leisure facilities. 

People use the Park for many different reasons – exercise, participate in events, take part in leisure pastimes, or simply to appreciate the natural environment.

ASF's guardrail design makes a key contribution to the public's enjoyment of this amenity.

The guardrails and viewing towers were installed several years ago, at an early stage of the Millennium Coastal Park project, and are monitored regularly by ASF. The posts show absolutely no signs of deterioration and have dulled to a rich cast iron patina which together with the stainless steel looks superb. The system has required no maintenance during in this harsh salt water location.