Barnshaw metal rolling enables Britain’s first purpose built motorway advertising arch

Metal fabrication and bending specialist Barnshaws Section Benders has contributed to the construction of Britain's first purpose built digital advertising arch in Salford, Manchester. The Salford Arch was financed by UK outdoor advertising business JCDecaux, and features precision rolled steel tube from Barnshaws Section Benders.

Located on the M602 gateway across six lanes as the motorway meets Regent Road, the double-sided Salford Arch is visible to the tens of thousands of vehicles that travel the highway on a daily basis. Having opened officially in August 2015, the Arch now provides prime advertising space for the council and businesses –consequently generating income for reinvestment in the local area.

Barnshaws were contracted to roll the required tubing due to the company's extensive metal expertise and tube rolling capacity. Spanning 37 metres across the motorway, the high potential risk of the structure demanded that work had to be carried out within stringent radii tolerances.

Greg North, Commercial Director at Barnshaws, commented, 'the scale of the project demanded a large cold bending capacity, which was a capability Barnshaws was able to provide. Barnshaws can cold bend sections from 6mm to 660mm diameter in tighter radii than most due to our focus on research, development and investing in the most modern machinery on-site. Such practise informs our methodology, such as utilising custom machined rolls to ensure Barnshaws can deliver consistent diameter and total tube support throughout the rolling process.'

Barnshaws was able to deliver the project on time to CE marked standards with total traceability – a level of documentation and service the company can provide across all CE execution classes.

The Salford Arch is expected to generate £5 million for Salford City Council over ten years, with local government hailing the new structure as a 'landmark' for the area. Thanks to architecturally pleasing design enabled by precision tube rolling, the 90m2 dual digital screens won't gain all the attention.