Workshop extensions, equipment platforms, boat shed frames and commercial units for the port, the energy sector and the marine trades of Lowestoft. Fabricated in Norwich, brought down the A146 and erected by the people who made it.
Lowestoft, Suffolk. About 27 miles from our Norwich base.
Structural steel installation, Suffolk
Britain's most easterly town earns its living from the sea, and its steelwork has to stand up to it.
Swift Fabrication provides steel erection in Lowestoft for port operators, offshore wind support yards, boatbuilders, builders and unit owners. We install frames for sheds and workshops, mezzanines, storage frames and equipment platforms, access stairs, walkways and handrails, all from the engineer's drawings.
A yard that services turbines or hauls out boats cannot shut because steel is going up. So our first questions are about what moves through your site and when: crew changes, deliveries, boat lifts, shared quay space. The erection sequence, the lay down area and the position of any hired crane get worked out around the answers.
Structural steel in Lowestoft
How the job runs
Detail shifts from yard to yard, so the plan goes down in writing first: what arrives when, which plant is coming and what it all costs.
Much yard steelwork stands on an existing concrete slab, not on new foundations. We look at what is there, where drains and ducts run and which anchors the engineer has specified. Drilled anchors want sound concrete, so doubts are raised before steel is made.
Steel leaves Norwich on a HIAB lorry, stacked so the first pieces wanted are on top. Small frames go up off the lorry crane or a hired telehandler. Bigger lifts get a hired mobile crane, with a MEWP for bolting up at height.
The structure is plumbed and levelled, all bolts are tightened and any coating marked during the lift is repaired. Then we walk round it with you or your site manager, so snags are dealt with there and then, not a 27 mile drive later.
Coatings, fixings and North Sea air
Salt spray carries a long way in from Ness Point and the harbour mouth, and thinly painted steel soon shows it. Hot dip galvanising or a heavier paint system can be arranged, with galvanised or stainless fixings to match.
Handrails and stair treads in wash down areas are often better in stainless steel, which we also weld. Where a baseplate sits on an old slab, the detail should shed water and not trap it. None of this costs much at drawing stage. All of it is dear to put right later.
Energy sector sites set their own rules on inductions, permits and lift plans. Send them with the enquiry. RAMS are written to suit.
PowerPark, the port and Oulton Broad
Around PowerPark and the outer harbour, operations and maintenance bases want stores, workshops, mezzanine floors and platforms for kit that keeps changing. On the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate it is more likely a unit extension, a new loading door opening or a first floor office on a steel deck.
At Oulton Broad the boatyards look for shed frames with clear height for a hull, wide door openings and workshop mezzanines. Give us the loads and spans and we will work with your engineer on sections we can get in and erect.
Machinery installation in LowestoftNorth east Suffolk
The run is about 27 miles, through Loddon and past Beccles, far enough that each trip has to count: survey and base check together, then steel, plant and crew on one day. Oulton Broad, Carlton Colville, Pakefield and Kessingland are within reach, and the Gull Wing bridge makes crossing the harbour simpler.
What helps us price: drawings from your engineer, the site address, photographs of the slab or foundations and of the way in off the road, and any site rules. Let us know if the steel must be up before a vessel, a contract or a season begins. The estimate is free and nothing starts until the price is agreed.
Steel fabrication in LowestoftAsked in Lowestoft
Yes, that is how most of this work is done. We agree a fenced working area and a lay down space, time deliveries around your traffic and keep lifts clear of busy periods. If part of the job has to happen at a weekend or early in the morning, that can be arranged.
No, but travel is part of the cost, so we will say if a small job is better bundled with other work. A single beam or a short run of platform steel is fine. It is planned as one visit to measure and one to fit.
Often. Frames and platforms in yards and units are commonly anchored to the slab with resin or mechanical anchors chosen by the engineer. We need to know how thick and how sound the slab is. If nobody knows, your engineer may want a core taken before the design is settled.
Yes, along with Carlton Colville, Pakefield and the villages out towards Beccles. It is all one trip down the A146 for us, so pricing works the same way as for the town itself.
Steel erection, Lowestoft
Send drawings, photographs and a note on how your site runs day to day. We will come back with questions, then a free estimate and a sensible sequence.