Projects

Project Description

West Midland Safari Park is an award-winning visitor attraction located in Worcestershire. It is home to various all-weather attractions, including four miles of drive-through safari, the largest animatronic dinosaur exhibition in the UK and an adventure theme park.

The park opened in 1973 by the famous actress Sophia Loren. The park has seen many exotic species call it home over the years. Currently, around 140 different species are living in the safari park. Animals are varying from cheetahs and lions to elephants and giraffes.

We have had a long relationship with West Midlands Safari Park. It has seen us maintain and manufacture various fabrications around the park. From animal enclosures and access gates to planned and reactive work, we are always on hand.

Our recent task has been to help refurbish one of the park’s rollercoasters—The Twister Coster. Themed around the ice cream, The Twister ride has been in the park since 1998. It is one of the most iconic attractions in the park. Due to its popularity season after season, the much-loved ride needed some TLC. The safari team also decided it was time for a rebrand.

With the coster dismantled, we took the track parts back to our workshop for a detailed inspection. After the review, we identified the need for some structural repairs. Our Class 1 Coded Welding Engineers got straight to work with the repairs. After the weld inspections had finished, we gave the parts a clean-up before going on to the shot blasters.

The shot blasters removed the old paint, re-primed and applied the new colourway. Once quality inspection of each track piece had finished, they went back to the park for assembly.

Now known as Monkey Mayhem, the ride is now back in service and as popular as ever.

Good job all round

Project Details

Project:

Twister RollerCoaster Refurbishment

Services Required:

Steel Fabrication, Coded Welding, Repair, Installation, Project Management

Customer:

West Midlands Safari Park

Website:

https://www.wmsp.co.uk/

Project Description

South Staffordshire Water is the leading drinking water supplier in West Midlands, South Staffordshire, South Derbyshire, North Warwickshire and North Worcestershire.

South Staffordshire Water was formed in 1853 to supply water to residents of the Black Country.

The water we supply is taken from the River Severn, Blithfield Reservoir and around 26 groundwater zones located across our supply area.

On average, we supply 330million litres of water every day, dispersed through nearly 6000km of water mains.

In 2013, a merger with Cambridge Water meant an additional 319,000 people came under the South Staffs umbrella.

Cambridge Water was also formed in 1853 and supplies high-quality underground water pumped from boreholes in chalk aquifers.

Today, they are responsible for supplying 1.6 million homes and 35,000 businesses.

Our partnership with the water company means we are their approved class 1 coded welding and pipe fabricating contractor.

We completed some preventative maintenance work at their Great Barr site for this project.

We installed a new 1000mm diameter butterfly valve on the live water main.

Our class 1 welders completed all positional welds on the new prefabricated valve adapter restraints and new Dn80 flanged branches.

All work carried out as per South Staffs instructions. Like all site work, the working procedures were to all health and hygiene regulations and codes of practice.

Project Details

Project:

Class 1 Coded Welding On PreFabricated Pipework

Services Required:

Coded Welding, Pipework Fabrication, Project Management

Customer:

South Staffs Water

Website:

https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk

Project Description

Sandwell College got in touch asking for us to manufacture and replace there wooden fire escape staircase from one of the colleges buildings. The old staircase was no longer fit for purpose and was becoming a bit of a hazard with the old wood rotting in places.

There requirements was for a more durable fire escape staircase that they could rely on.

After a site survey, we fabricated a new mild steel staircase, with galvanised steps and walkway to the required size needed.

Liaising with the onsite contact, we delivered and installed the new staircase at the time requested.

“Having been on site at Sandwell Engineering today, I thought I would just send you a quick thank you for supplying and installing the new stairs and landing at Sandwell Engineering. They are a first class job.”

Lyn Russell – Sandwell College Estates Manager

Project Details

Project:

Staircase Fabrication

Services Required:

Pipe Fabrication, Gas Services, Coded Welding, Repair, Installation, Project Management

Customer:

Sandwell College

Website:

https://sandwell.ac.uk

Project Description

The Library of Birmingham is a public library situated beside the Birmingham Rep, Baskerville House and sharing its entrance with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in Centenary Square. 

The £188.8 million building opened on 3 September 2013 and replaced Birmingham Central Library, which had been operating since 1974. 

The flagship project is the most extensive public library in the United Kingdom.

It is the UK’s 10th most popular visitor attraction, with over two million visitors annually. It is also Europe’s largest public cultural space and comprehensive regional Library. 

The library caters to everybody over its ten floors with two outdoor garden terraces, children’s spaces, 300 seated studio, a panoramic viewing gallery and an outdoor amphitheatre for music and storytelling.

It also is home to an extensive collection of rare books, archives and photography, including one of the largest Shakespeare collections in the world. This includes s very rare items such as First Folio 1623 and the famous, Victorian Shakespeare Memorial Room.

Plant Room Refurb

The Library Of Birmingham utilises the Birmingham District Energy Scheme (BDES) as it provides low-carbon heat to help aid Birmingham City Council’s aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% by 2027.

It is connected to the existing Broad Street scheme to export and import heat, using the tri-generation energy centre in conjunction with the Library of Birmingham development. 

As Varlowe has been involved with the majority of Birmingham district heating plant rooms, we also provided site services to help complete the refurbishment, which included the following: 

• On And Off-Site Pipework Fabrication
• Pipe Fitting Services
• Class 1 Coded Welding
• General Painting

Project Details

Project:

Plant Room Refurbishment

Services Required:

Pipe Fabrication, Gas Services, Coded Welding, Repair, Installation, Project Management

Customer:

Birmingham Council

Website:

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/libraries