The Completion of the Bridge!

After 10 months of work the refurbishment and renovation of the original 1889 cast iron bridge parapet is now complete.

The parapet sits on the grade II listed Cleggford Bridge in Dewsbury (West Yorkshire) - the stone bridge itself dates back to the 1700's and the parapet was added later.

The job was time consuming and at times tricky. Following long discussions and many meetings, the brief was to bring the parapet back into useable condition whilst maintaining as much of it's original structure as possible - and this includes retaining any erosion, weathering and past repairs, regardless of how badly these had been bodged!

The fact that ASF have our own metallurgist, pattern makers, casting engineers, fabricators, welders and a host of technical experts meant that this was a job we could manage (I actually don't thing that many companies could do this type of work nowadays). In order to meet the brief a modular system was developed for repair of major sections so that only the parts of the parapet that were absolutely beyond rescue needed to be replaced. In addition to this, various methods of invisible mending were developed so that the parapet could be strengthened whilst keeping it's weathered look.

This is easier said than done, the whole problem of minimal impact whilst completing a full scale renovation was made more difficult as each of the 100+ component parts of the parapet were subtly different at best and often dramatically different. The modular system developed therefore had to be flexible enough to be adaptable to this.

There is more information on the bridge renovation on the projects page of the ASF website.

A story of Bridges and Bronzes

Half way through 2010 already and the year has gone from strength to strength.

Alongside our ongoing street furniture supply work we have been working on a few special projects. Working with CR Reynolds and Kirklees council we are now on the final stages of refurbishing a Victorain Bridge Parapet. Our specialist knowledge of cast iron has allowed us to take on this job which has at once been exciting, interesting, and exceedingly difficult.

We are also in the finishing straight of a job casting and supplying bronze street furniture and paving features for Crowle Market Square, Lincolnshire. This is a highly bespoke job that has thrown up not insignificant challenges along the way!

Other interesting jobs completed this year have been supplying bespoke street furniture for the ongoing rennovation to Bradford City Centre and the manufacture of some stunning stainless steel tree grilles for Gatwick Airport.

ASF Street Furniture - new for 2010

With January out of the way and everyone back at work we can now see the way ahead for 2010. We have created a new website that highlights some of our casting capabilities in our foundry.

The new microsite is dedicated to green sand manufacturing and casting, the oldest mass production technique in mould making.

The new green sand foundry website, is at

www.greensandfoundry.co.uk

This one page site outlines what greensand is, how the process works and the kind of things we can manufacture with it.