PROJECT
Devonsplace Footbridge, Newsport Station, Wales
CLIENT
Newport City Council
CONTRACTOR
Alun Griffiths
ARCHITECT
The Urbanists
START DATE
September 2021
COMPLETION
April 2023
PRODUCT RANGE
Stainless Steel Cladding Support System

 

Project Outline

The project encompassed a new footbridge providing a combined active travel route spanning over Newport Train Station. The bridge is an integral part of a wider active travel development strategy for Newport and connects the Queensway near the city Centre to the residential areas surrounding Devon Place. The bridge will replace the existing subway,which has been renowned as a site of criminal activity, was the only connection between the two areas, and only featured stepped access. The new structure provides a light, safe and attractive addition to the station area.


Develop

ParCa Ltd were introduced to the project by a supplier quoting for the granite cladding. After a set of online calls with the site and design team we quickly carried out an initial assessment of the requirements and proposed the system that could be used with the chosen materials and the desired construction detail. The desire was to have the stone cladding as thin as possible to save weight and cost, so a mixture of 25mm and 40mm granite units was selected for the project. With the unit sizes, the weight of the units was not going to be an issue, but with radius sections and a 25mm cavity to work with for fixings, meant we had some challenges to overcome. ParCa Ltd provided an overall assessment including budget costing and lead times for the package, as standard our proposal included a full design and scheduling service.


Detail

Once our initial proposal had been accepted by Alun Griffiths we got to work on the overall design, as part of our detailing and design package we provided full structural calculations to show the system being capable of supporting the units, run layout drawings and full schedules of materials to be supplied, along with technical data sheets for the associated fixings to be incorporated into the system. We worked with Alun Griffiths, the main design & build contractor to scope out each section to offer the most cost and time effective method of support and restraint. This gave rise to a combination of continuous support for the longer straight runs and individual brackets to the radius sections. With the radius sections being such a large radii it was decided to manufacture the individual brackets straight and not tomatch the radius, manufacturing any steel components to a radii will increase the cost significantly, so we modelled the bracket to the RC wall and cladding and presented this to the team, who agreed to keep them straight. Through the process of detailing this project we proposed too and removed a lot of angle runs orbracket in areas where only temporary support was required, and this could be achieved a lot more cost effectively with simple timber bearers that could then be removed, showing we will never over sell or engineer a system. We also discovered through the detailing process the top units of one of the sections had to be installed first due to a cast in coping, so we devised a way with site to install the cladding from the top down which included having the dowls in the top brackets pencil sharpened to help guide them into the pre-drilled positions in the top brackets.

devonsplace footbridge detail


Deliver

The system was manufactured and delivered to site in 2 hits, after delivery it was discovered, a simple mistake had been made on the quantities when we completed the manufacturing schedules for the factory, a late change to one area was made after the initial order had been processed and as such the site was around 20 brackets short, these were manufactured and delivered within 7 days. Sometimes mistakes happen, but as soon as this was identified we moved swiftly to correct and ensure the site was not held up or delayed in any way. Throughout the manufacturing period of the system, we welcome anyone to visit our production facility and check on the progress of their order, but we realise time is a precious commodity, so we produce inspection reports for all orders, which are sent prior to dispatch of the materials, giving a glance at what to expect when the materials arrive on site and below are some images taken of the materials during the inspection. We also provided colour swatch charts for the Mastic and supplied illbruck Slate Grey FA880 matt finish silicone for the jointing of the units, along with tooling required.

Devonsplace footbridge deliver


Full details