South East is first choice for major London venues

Citation

(2005), "South East is first choice for major London venues", Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 52 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/acmm.2005.12852fab.008

South East is first choice for major London venues

South East is first choice for major London venues

South East Galvanizers Ltd, based at Witham, Essex, is currently working on three prestigious, high-profile contracts in the London area in partnership with its customer, Pipecentre Ltd – namely, the latest phase of the Channel Tunnel rail link, the new Arsenal FC football stadium at Highbury and an extension to the Underground line for Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport.

Pipecentre Ltd, of Brentwood, Essex – part of the Wolseley UK group – is a specialist in steel pipe fabrication, which in the case of the Channel Tunnel rail link and Terminal 5 projects is being used to supply water for the integral fire extinguisher systems. For the new Highbury stadium the piping is required as part of the water drainage system on the roof, and Pipecentre Ltd has also been contracted to supply structural steelwork for the stadium, which is also being galvanized by South East.

In all three projects Pipecentre Ltd selected South East Galvanizers Ltd to carry out the galvanizing work, following previous successful partnerships between the two companies.

Around 1,000 tonnes of pipes have been galvanized for Phase 2 of the Channel Tunnel rail link, which incorporates a 16 mile tunnel from St Pancras Station in Central London to the Thurrock and Dartford areas on the edge of the city where the new line will link up with the existing rail line to the Channel Tunnel itself.

Terry Reeve of Pipecentre Ltd explained that the advanced 6.5 m pipe sections, which have been designed and fabricated to do away with conventional flanges, needed to be galvanized to a very exacting standard of 100 mm thickness in order to provide the required 25 years' protection in the corrosive underground environment inside the tunnel.

He said the galvanizing requirements for the Heathrow Terminal 5 project were even more exacting, with galvanizing required to 120 mm. In total, the completed pipes in the Heathrow tunnel would be 12 km in length (and 8 in./200 NB diameter), while the Channel Tunnel rail link would have 20 km of 8 in./200 NB pipe and 26 km of 6 in./150 NB pipe).

Neil Pearson of South East Galvanizers Ltd, said: “We are proud and delighted to have been appointed for all three of these high profile galvanizing projects because all three are major contracts at locations which have national importance.”

“We have been working on the Channel Tunnel rail link for the past two years and we are close to seeing this completed with all the pipes being delivered from our site by August/ September this year. This fits in with the track-laying due to be completed by the end of 2005 and the rail link to be in service by 2007.”