Project Outline
The Strand in the heart of London’s inner city has long been a heavily congested traffic route and after years of planning to pedestrianize the area construction finally started in January 2021 and completed in December 2022, the scheme involved redirection of traffic to the now 2 way A4 Aldwych Road that surrounds the scheme and turning the main area into a pedestrianized plaza area with planting, seating and special artwork features to compliment some the very historic buildings lining the area like somerset house, the Church of St Mary-le-Strand and Kings College.
Develop
ParCa Ltd were introduced to the project by the specified and selected supplier of the natural stone paving to be used throughout the development and we quickly engaged with the design team from WSP, and we worked with them to develop their idea for a steel channel to be inset into the paved area and finish flush with the surrounding paving. At 20 mtrs long it could be preassembled but transport and lifting into place would be difficult, so we devised a robust jointing system to keep each 2 mtr unit perfectly in line when installed and the paving was laid up to the channel. ParCa Ltd provided the overall assessment including budget costing and lead times for the package, and small section as a sample for approval.
Detail
Once our initial proposal had been accepted, we agreed the drawing produced for the approval was good enough to manufacture the units, and we instigated the full production of the units. Through this stage various ideas about on-site welding of the units were discussed and subsequently agreed, so the finish product would have a seamless look. So once the units were installed, we would arrange for one of our welding team to visit site, weld the joints and then polish the join to mask the welded joint and create one seamless channel.
Deliver
Once the manufacture had been completed a concern was raised regarding the polished surface being quite slippery, even though it is only 120mm wide the design team wanted to investigate the possibility of other finishes. ParCa advised on the best way to achieve this, carried out trials on various levels of blasting and submitted these for approval to the design team.
Once the level of texturing had been decided and approved, we carried this out, due to the mediums used in the blasting process the surface of the 316 stainless became discoloured quite quickly and through further extensive trials we ended up using a glass bead to blast the units. With the units now having a blasted finish it was decided not to weld the joints on site as the blasting process on site would cost more to carry out than the benefit it would gain. This goes to show that for a relatively small project we worked very hard to ensure the finished product would meet the client’s expectations and be able to stand the test of time on a heavily foot trafficked area.
Inspection Pictures
Summary & Share
The intention of this analysis is to showcase the work carried out and support given by ParCa Ltd to all parties involved in the completion of the project, it in no way encompasses every person or organization that may have been involved, but we give recognition to the physical parties we were involved with. The pictures contained within this are of the specific materials manufactured for this project.
