Solving construction problems with new thinking in steel tubes
Yacht Havens own and operate a number of marinas in the South of England, Wales, Scotland and the Netherlands. The Neyland Marina is the most picturesque marinas in Wales set in the Pembrokeshire National Park.
The marina had been a customer in 2007 when CST supplied over 200 tonnes of 406mm x 19.1mm painted tubular piles. Further expansion of the marina in 2016 required 230 tonnes of tubular piles for floating pontoons.
The marina manager was keen to investigate the possibility of the tubular steel piles having a protective coating that would be harder wearing than the normal glass flake epoxy paint commonly used for protecting steel in marine applications. The CST team proposed an innovative, cost-effective solution using Location Wales re-purposed subsea pipes.
The stock was seamless high-grade 356 mm O/D x 19.1 mm Wt. pipe, produced in Japan for use as a sub-sea oil pipeline and subsequently surplus to requirements. The pipe was coated externally with a hard, durable, 3 layer white polypropylene coating. CST proposed fabricating 20-24m piles with the coating left in situ. The customer asked if the coating could be black (traditional for marine applications) and so a trial supply of piles with black acrylic urethane paint were supplied.
This passed all marine/ecological requirements with flying colours and the balance of the order was supplied in line with the project delivery schedule.
