Steel fabrication infrastructure specialist Adey Steel has completed the manufacture and supply of temporary stay rings for use at the Winter Hill broadcast mast in the North West of England.
Located near Chorley in Lancashire, Winter Hill is one of the tallest broadcast masts in the UK at an overall height of 309 metres (or 1,015 feet).
Originally constructed in the mid-1950s, Winter Hill is made from a tubular construction, weighing in excess of 210 tonnes. Steel support wires, which are designed to hold the transmitter vertical, are connected at five different heights throughout the structure, to provide 15 supports in total.
In the late 2000s, the mast had to be further strengthened when it became the first mast in the UK to broadcast digital television in High Definition.
Adey Steel was commissioned to fabricate and supply a number of galvanised temporary stay rings at its purpose-built factory in Loughborough for use at Winter Hill during refurbishment work on the support steel wires. Each temporary stay ring weighed approximately three tonnes.
As part of the major maintenance project, the team at Adey Steel also provided temporary stay cover plates, bolt packers and stay ring packers. They also created a bespoke manufactured Access/Drilling Platform for use by the installation team when suspended from the outside of the mast.
