The New Islington Marina is a bustling new redevelopment area in central Manchester
The local Council, in conjunction with the UK government’s Northern Powerhouse Programme, decided the pressure treated timber decking around the marina was no longer safe and requested national contractor BAM Nuttall to replace it with something more durable.
After discussions with Ecochoice on the best specification for this project, it was decided to go for FSC certified Ekki deck boards, including 2 strips of anti-slip to make the boarwalk safer due to its proximity with the water.
Since Ekki is one of the toughest timbers available, it makes for hard work on site to trim deck boards to the right length. And the addition of bauxite resin anti-slip strips would further hinder work, increasing hourly labour costs and waste loads of saw blades given the hardness and abbrasion of the resin mix.
Ecochoice then suggested that deliveries could be made in prefabricated decking panels, thus saving valuable time and head aches on site. BAM and its designers got to work on standard panel designs which were then engineered by our partner sawmill in the Netherlands.
The final iterations were approved and deliveries to Manchester started to take place, taking extra care of both site, unloading and truck limitations.
The result speaks for itself – a beautiful landscaping project around a gorgeous marina in the centre of one of Britain’s most vibrant city centres. All timber was sourced from FSC certified forests, ensuring top sustainability marks also due to its minimal site waste achievements.
For help with your boardwalk and decked areas, please contact us and we’ll be happy to share our expertise.