Synopsis:

We completed the installation of our vehicle restraint systems for our client Morgan Sindall on behalf of Associated British Ports in Southampton. We installed the Bri-Safe wire rope solution that is affixed to the structural columns of the car park to assemble the unique system.

Products installed:

• Bri-Safe Wire Rope Vehicle Restraint System
• Push-on Corner Fenders
• Yellow High Visibility Coating

Berry Systems protects British exports at Southampton Docks:

The Port of Southampton is one of the UK’s largest vehicle handling ports, with more than 650,000 automotive vehicles passing through in 2012. The large majority of these vehicles were UK manufactured cars shipped for export.

To accommodate this traffic efficiently, Associated British Ports, Britain’s leading port operator, developed more than 80ha of dedicated vehicle storage and distribution compounds.

The facilities include four multi-deck vehicle terminals, the most recent of which was constructed by Morgan Sindall. For all of the multi-decks, the choice of perimeter protection was crucial and in this instance Morgan Sindall selected the wire rope solution from Berry Systems.

This deck is a steel-framed construction with concrete slab decks and is the second deck at Southampton to have been fitted with Berry Systems’ barriers. The standard Berry Bri-Safe system consists of 3 tensioned wire ropes running through a mesh panel that provides and integrated anti-climb feature and pedestrian handrail.

However, the particular usage of Southampton meant that the anti-climb mesh and handrail was not required as there is no public or general pedestrian access. Therefore, a combination of 5 and 6 wire systems was developed, employing 4 low level wires at a typical vehicle impact height to cater for the varying range of vehicle sizes encountered.

The higher wires are at handrail height (minimum 1100mm) and complete the barrier by providing personnel protection. All wires were coated in bright yellow plastic for high visibility.

The cables were anchored to the structural columns and then tensioned to provide the required impact resistance while still retaining flexibility to minimise any impact damage.

The wire rope system also has no footprint on the parking deck and so maximises the storage space availabile.

Further protection was provided by fixing Berry Corner Fenders to the exposed edges of the steel columns. These EPDM synthetic rubber fenders also have high visibility yellow strips on each side to give a visual hazard warning, regardless of the direction of approach.

Specification:

• 10,276 metres of perimeter wire rope to storage decks and ramps
• 2,138 rubber column corner fenders
• 308 rubber pads (600 x 130mm) for column face protection