Plas Y Brenin National Outdoor Centre, Betws-y-Coed, Wales

Project Overview

This popular outdoor adventure centre in Snowdonia is located at Capel Curig, Betws-y-Coed, Conwy and that provides a wide range of training activities. In line with the centre’s drive to make the outdoors more inclusive, marine construction specialists MMS Ltd were appointed to install an accessibility composite gangway using our d² Mini Mesh Grating.

Helping accessibility with the Full GRP Gangway for Inland Waterways.

Plas Y Brenin is a training centre created to offer a wide range of activities to help people learn new skills or just to have fun at the extensive on-site facilities. A crucial part of this is increasing all-ability access to parts of the training centre, mainly improving wheelchair access to the kayaks, launching and recovering safely.

The creation of a wheelchair accessible gangway, done in house through our Fabrication team, to one of the two lakes on site using GRP Mini Mesh d² Dura Grating and GRP Structural d² Profile frame, alongside the use of bespoke designed stainless-steel hinges to integrate it with the land-based structure and floating platform will help even more people benefit from the outstanding facilities and enjoy the beautiful landscape.

MMS Ltd operate nationally, providing waterside and on water access to make every sport activity open for all to enjoy. With their expert knowledge, they chose Dura Composites the full GRP Gangway thanks to its safety features, resilience to the elements and its attractive aesthetics. Durable, lower in embodied carbon and now fully recyclable, the gritted d² mesh grating is exclusive to Dura Composites and maintains 95% of its anti-slip performance after 1 million footfalls. We supplied full structural design support.

The most compelling benefit, however, is its resilience to the extreme weather conditions of this part of the country. Given the location, the access ways are regularly subjected to fluctuations in water levels, often experiencing flooding followed by drying. Ensuring that the materials used to create the GRP Gangway are resistant to the elements were essential to their long-term value.

The handrail solution combines non-sparking, non-corrosive and non-conductive properties prevent the need for ongoing maintenance even in harsh conditions. While the d² Dura Grating mini mesh maintains both its anti-slip properties and structural integrity despite repeated flooding and is ideal for withstanding harsh outdoor conditions such as rain, snow, and UV exposure without corroding or degrading.

The combined attributes of the GRP Gangway make it a practical and reliable solution which integrated seamlessly into MMS project. Giving those at the Plas Y Brenin National Outdoor Centre peace of mind that their inclusive lake accessway will be there for years to come and require little to no maintenance.

The stunning scenery and warm welcome at Plas y Brenin make it a fantastic base to explore the area. Working there to provide wheelchair access to one of the two lakes on site was an extremely rewarding experience for MMS Ltd.

Materials selection for the project was crucial to ensure long-term durability, and our collaboration with Dura Composites was extremely positive. From working with their design team to receiving materials on site, every aspect of the process was well considered. We look forward to future projects together.

Glynn Melhuish

Managing Director of MMS Ltd

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