Above left, the ends of the stainless steel cable railing system, closeup view. Above right, stainless steel mullions, made of welded layers of stainless, support five acrylic panels and 270,000 pounds of water pressure thrust in the Dolphin Performance pool at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.
“We were approached to bid the project by Astra Group,” says Robert Owens, president of Owens Welding, 90 miles north of Atlanta in Cleveland, GA. The plans specified railings or an equal. “Being the company we are, we wanted to give them a product that was our own. So we devised an ‘or equal to’ railing system that was fully accepted by the City of Atlanta.” Safety that blends
The project called for 3,050 feet of steel handrail, powder coated with aluminum caps. Another 680 feet of rail circles the pond and 760 feet of singleline stainless steel rail runs along the various steps and ramps throughout the park. Designers selected stainless steel with stainless cable to minimize the effect of handrail. They were looking for something that would be less obtrusive than most safety barriers. “The stainless steel handrails are comprised of vertical and horizontal pipe,” explains Allen Eison, Astra’s director of operations. “They’re tied together by an elbow that is fabricated and polished by hand to get a mirror finish.” It creates a fittingly shiny and delicate necklace for Clear Creek’s pond at the Historic Fourth Ward Park. July / August 2011 n Fabricator
“We were able to achieve the look and durability they wanted by custom building the stainless steel fittings and the post system. The cables and escutcheon plates were the only direct-purchase components on the rail system,” says Kevin Hill, administrator for Owens Welding. Depending on what a customer needs, the shop fabricates as much as possible from stock, rather than buying components
and putting them together. “The fittings themselves are stainless steel through out. There’s no plating at all and no adhesive was used. They are fully welded to the posts and top handrail. The inside handrails on the cable railing sections are joined welds — there are no internal splices or seams. The inside handrail is one continuous piece of stainless steel,” says Hill.
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