17 March 2008
A £500,000 Capita Symonds scheme to improve a vital
access road to the Nant Gwrtheyrn Welsh language residential
training centre in North Wales has been completed.
Capita Symonds' North Wales office in Colwyn Bay designed
and managed improvements to the road which was formally opened this
week by Ieuan Wyn Jones, Welsh Assembly Government’s Deputy First
Minister.
The local landscape had previously made access to the centre
difficult for inexperienced drivers and prevented larger service
vehicles from reaching the venue which is used for Welsh language
teaching as well as weddings and conferences.
Capita Symonds was appointed by the Nant Gwrtheyrn Trust to
secure planning permission and to design and supervise improvements
to the private access road leading down to the centre on the
beautiful Llyn Peninsula.
Our Colwyn Bay office had previously undertaken an options study
for the Trust, reviewing a range of methods for improving the road
and making it safer for road users to access. The improvements
included widening of hairpin bends; trimming back the rock face in
narrow sections of the road to increase road width and forward
visibility; construction of passing places; provision of stone
faced containment walls; and the installation of an innovative wood
and steel safety barrier system, as well as a new entrance and
gateway at the top of the valley.
The detailed design phase included geotechnical, ecological and
landscape assessments, followed by project management and site
supervision during the construction phase.
Capita Symonds' Associate Dilwyn Roberts said: “The existing
access road to the Nant Gwrtheyrn Centre was built down the side of
the mountain over 20 years ago. As you can imagine, it was very
narrow and even quite treacherous with hairpin bends and gradients
as steep as 1 in 4 – not to mention a cliff face on one side with
an unprotected 500ft sheer drop on the other side of the
track.”
“The magnificent setting of the site presented a number of
challenges to the design and construction teams. Our main
objectives were to design a scheme that would provide safe access
for larger vehicles and minimise any impact on the environment. The
scheme is sympathetic to the natural beauty of the site and the
innovative use of timber faced safety fencing and local stone has
preserved the rural nature of the access road and has helped to
minimise the visual impact of the scheme. The team really put in a
tremendous amount of hard work to deliver the project on time and
within budget,” he added.
Client reaction to the scheme has been impressive with KPI
scores of ten out of ten across the board. As Jeff Williams Jones,
Chairman of Nant Gwrtheyrn Trust said: “We are very pleased with
the standard of workmanship and the careful planning and design
work which has delivered a major improvement to the access road. We
would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the team at
Capita Symonds for a job well done.”