Wicklow Harbour’s Norther Pier has long provided a sheltered area for swimmers to bath during the summer months. So much so that many years ago, Wicklow Coounty Council built a swimming platform on the pier and a steel pontoon out in the harbour so local swimmers had an ‘island’ to get to, take a break and swim back.
After may faithful years of service, these platforms failed and needed to be replaced. Wicklow County Council launched two separate tenders for companies to provide estimates of replacements of these structures. Airfloat was the successful tenderer in both cases!
We firstly provided the swimming island which was a nice simple square pontoon that has to be moored in the harbour along with two swimming ladders and using our unique ballast system the pontoons were ‘sunk’ to the desired height by Wicklow County Council that allowed users to easily climb on and off the pontoons. Airfloat completed this part of the tender in a very short timeframe.
The swimming platform was slightly more challenging as this pontoon had to be fixed to the North Pier where the previous platform had been a steel structure that remained permanently on the wall. Furthermore the pontoon had to be fixed giving access across two existing ladders and be durable enough to withstand the exposed sea state generated by Easterly winds.
The Airfloat team had to affix I beams to the pier wall to allow affixing of the pontoon to the pier. The I beans and connectors on the pontoon allow the pontoon to raise and fall with the tide.
Airfloat had a tight time-frame to deliver this project in time for the summer bathing season in Wicklow. Despite some logistical challenges both pontoons were open for business ahead of schedule.
