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ADVERTORIAL
Scott Parnell has become the go-to organisation for innovative civils products for the rail industry. Head of Rail Sharon Meek and Technical Rail Director Ian Allwright explain more about the company’s exciting new offering
Introducing composite ballast retaining boards to the UK railways T
here is nothing more exciting for the team at Scott Parnell than bringing new products to the industry to support the goals of the client, contractors and manufacturers. It is something the rail specialist has a proven track record in doing, having spent a number of years flying the flag for SMEs and startups with innovative ideas and products. Its strategy is designed to help all stakeholders, from installer through to client, taxpayer and the environment. When Scott Parnell comes to the industry with a product, the sector listens, something that it hopes will be the case with its latest offering, composite ballast retaining boards. It is a more sustainable ballast board and compared to alternatives it is lighter, more efficient to install, and offers an extended design life and a dual purpose of ballast retention and ground retention. “For many, many years our customer base have asked for alternatives to the current offering, mainly to reduce the impact on the installation teams,” said Ian Allwright, Technical Rail Director at Scott Parnell. “What we are offering is a fantastic alternative with glass-fibre reinforced polyester (GRP), which is lighter, stronger and offers an interlocking design so when the ballast boards are put into position within the post they work together distributing the load. This really is a premier product.” Scott Parnell is the exclusive UK stockist for the product, produced by Complete Composite Systems, which has been launched following more than a year of development, testing and obtaining engineers’ calculations. The GRP ballast board comes as part of a multi-use system using an ‘H’ or Tee section steel post that has bracketry. This bracketry mounts onto the in-ground steel, which will convert into a handrail. Alternatively, it can be fixed to its ARCOSYSTEM® bracketry. “When looking for new products the criteria we look at are sustainability, safety, cost-benefit and maintenance reduction,” said Head of Rail Sharon Meek. “This product ticks those boxes. “Our GRP boards produce just 3.9kg of carbon during production, which is significantly less than traditional materials and we can offer a notable reduction in haulage too.
Image: Luke McDonagh, Enable Construction
What we are offering is a fantastic alternative with glass-fibre reinforced polyester The solution The industry is already doing just that. During work for Network Rail on a retaining wall at East Grinstead, (GRP), which is contractor Enable turned to Scott Parnell when tasked with providing a permanent and maintainable lighter, stronger solution to stabilise an embankment which had been impacted by adverse weather. With sustainability and and offers an safety in mind, the contractor decided to carry out the interlocking design repairs using the GRP ballast boards. “This system allows the opportunity to add or make changes in future without huge cost and in terms of the product, it has a minimum 60-year lifespan. There are also safety benefits with the product weighing just 12.5kg with other systems which require two-person lifting because the product weighs more. “So it pays not just for Scott Parnell to have it, but also for the industry to push forward with it.”
Luke McDonagh, Site Manager for Enable, said: “Not only did the product meet design standards but it also mitigated manual handling risks normally found with standard products.”
January 2024