The Welsh village of Saundersfoot is loacted within the UK’s only Coastal National Park, and was awarded millions of pounds of funding as part of the Welsh Assembly’s Tourism Attractor Destination programme, in order to comprehensively develop the village harbour into the Wales International Coastal Centre (WICC). Phase 1 of the project involved improving the harbour facilities, laying out new walkways and the construction of the 1800 sq m National Events Deck, an amphitheatre to accommodate 4,000 visitors. The Marine Centre for Excellence forms the first part of Phase 2 of the project, along with the Ocean Square mixed-use redevelopment scheme, and the Coastal Schooner Centre, a reconstruction of a schooner vessel, containing an events space, a shop and a theatre. The Marine Centre of Excellence will include a restaurant, an engineering workshop, an educational coastal storm centre, a commercial unit and a watersports facility. The Welsh Assembly hopes that these multiple linked developments will further augment Pembrokeshire’s tourism sector, complimenting its mild weather, Blue Flag beaches, historic castles, monuments and scenery, as well as provide over 90 local jobs.
Studwelders Ltd were involved in this project, just as they were also involved in the Pendine Sands of Speed Museum, another Tourism Attractor project. From April-June 2019, their installation teams fastened over 1050m2 of crushed-end, ultra-long span trapezoidal MetFloor steel decking to the steel framework, over the 4 floors of the building. They did this using CSC composite shear connectors and through-welding techniques. In accordance with UKMDA-recommended best practice, the teams also installed FASET-compliant safety netting across the structure, to ensure safe working conditions for the staff. Finally, Studwelders were also appointed to perform the vital concreting service, to create a composite floor decking system. Studwelders has in-house concrete managers that plan the concreting services simultaneous to the decking installation and studwelding services, thereby eliminating any further delays to the construction programme, and concreting is carried out immediately after the decking and welding operations are complete. In order to reduce travel and environmental issues, Studwelders employs skilled teams located throughout the UK. These dual operations carried out by Studwelders allow for a fully integrated deck slab design, as opposed to separate decking and concreting designs.
Following the completion of the Marine Centre of Excellence, construction will resume on the next elements of the Welsh International Coastal Centre, which gained planning permission in March 2019.
