Lanes checks drain pipes built for surf pipes in Snowdonia

Lanes Group has been commissioned to survey the drainage system created to support what will become one of the most unusual surfing attractions in the world.

Its engineers have been working at Surf Snowdonia, the first inland surfing centre in the UK, and a site that is pioneering an attempt to broaden access to surfing globally.

A team from the Lanes depot at Chester was called in to carry out CCTV drainage surveys at Surf Snowdonia, which is in Snowdonia National Park and is due to open in summer 2015.

Surf Snowdonia is costing £12 million to build and will offer the world’s first publically-accessible Wavegarden® surfing lagoon.

Its creators want to revolutionise surfing as a sport, making it accessible to millions more people who have no chance to get to coastal areas with the right beach and see conditions.

At a touch of a button, Surf Snowdonia’s lagoon will generate a range of perfectly-formed surfing waves – sometimes called pipes – that will travel for 200m along a 300m artificial surfing lagoon.

The inventors of the technology hope it will eventually be used to allow surfing to become an Olympic sport.

Conwy Adventure Leisure is developing the attraction in Dolgarrog, on the site of a former aluminium plant – and is using technology that its Spanish inventors hope will result in surfing becoming an Olympic sport.

Lanes Group Area Development Manager for Cheshire and Wales Ian Clapham said: “Surf Snowdonia must be the most striking an unusual location to go surfing in the world.

“We’re very pleased to have been asked to work on such a prestigious project. Carrying out drainage cleaning and survey work on construction projects like this in a timely manner is essential.

“It is an important element of the assurance process, both for the contractor and the client, as each stage of the building process is reached.”

The CCTV survey was carried out on the drainage system created for the main visitor centre. Brian Jones, a quantity surveyor for D Morgan, the project’s main contractor, said: “The Lanes team did a good job.

“Their survey allowed us to be sure that the drains were in good condition before they were handed over to the contractor responsible for putting up the visitor centre building.”

Lanes deployed a jet vacuumation tanker and mainline CCTV drainage camera team to carry out the clean and survey work on pipes ranging in diameter from 100 to 150 millimetres.

Surf Snowdonia says it expects to attract 75,000 visitors a year, creating 60 new jobs on site, and supporting many more in the leisure and tourist supply chain.

Comments are closed.