Surf Snowdonia big fill completes [GALLERY]
The £12m manmade lake took shape this week with 33,000 cubic metres of water in preparation for its opening on 1 August.
It took the pumps 18 hours to fill the new tourist attraction which stretches 300 metres by 110 metres. The new facility uses Wavegarden technology to create waves, designed and delivered by the company of the same name based in San Sebastien, Spain.
See gallery below
Surf Snowdonia has been built on a former industrial site, an aluminium rolling and casting works which opened in 1907. The aluminium mill closed in 2007.
So far Surf Snowdonia has employed 112 people, many from the Conwy Valley.
More than 25,000 cubic metres of onsite material were crushed and reused. Four hundred tonnes of steel, cast iron and copper were also recycled from the site.
The surfing area is filled with rainwater from Snowdonia mountain reservoirs, which power a hydroelectric station before giving you the ride of your life in our surf lagoon. So the water that powers your wave is also helping to power 20,000 households in Wales every year.
The new technology will generate consistent two-metre waves which will peel for 150 metres. The pioneering lagoon is located 10 miles inland, on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park.
The International Surfing Association has submitted a bid to have surfing included in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The main construction contractor is D Morgan based in Ellesmere Port. Work on site started in June 2014. Sheffield-based SLD Pumps supplied the pumps for the fill and managed the process of getting water in to the lagoon. Wigan-based ATG UV Technology designed and installed the UV disinfection technology in the lagoon to sterilise water by UV light rather than chlorine or other chemicals. Lincolnshire-based Pumping Solutions designed the unique water pumping system which will see all 33,000 cubic metres in the lagoon filtered every 26 hours. HH Smith of Bury constructed the buildings on site.
The scheme is being developed by Conwy Adventure Leisure, which was established in 2012 by Martin Ainscough, who sold his family crane hire business in 2007 for £255m. Conwy Adventure Leisure’s managing director is ex-Army officer and former boss of Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester, Steve Davies.
Davies said around 75,000 visitors a year were forecast in the business plan.
The project team includes surveyor WCP Associates, landscape architect Planit-IE, and NJL Consulting on planning.
Click image to launch gallery
