Sika admixtures supporting act at Comedy Carpet
Sikacontact supplier
Sika admixtures
Self compacting concrete containing Sika admixtures helped create a 2,200 square metre concrete artwork at Comedy Carpet, a new GBP2.6 million attraction at the foot of Blackpool Tower.
The concrete artwork was commissioned by Blackpool Council, features gags, catchphrases and names of more than 1,000 comedians.
Comprising 235 cast concrete panels, the piece by Gordon Young, a visual artist who focuses on creating art for the public domain, with typography by Why Not Associates, includes over 160,000 letters cut from solid red and black granite and specially created cobalt blue concrete.
The 30mm deep letters were cast into high quality concrete panels.
The letters were laid out in a mould, upside down and back to front, and cast in a white, hardwearing grout to form the visual layer when completed and turned over.
A reinforced concrete base layer was then added.
To avoid disturbing the mosaic of letters, it was necessary for this base layer to be cast without added vibration to consolidate the concrete.
To achieve this, self compacting concrete supplied by Robin Concrete was chosen.
This concrete mix, containing specially adapted Sika ViscoCrete superplasticisers, produces unique fluidity and inherent compactibility.
Once completed and laid in place on the headland, the carpet was ground, polished and sealed.
Concrete admixture, Sika Control 40 was also contained in the mix to greatly reduce any shrinkage during curing of the concrete.
Comedy Carpet is one of the largest and most ambitious pieces of public art ever commissioned in the UK.
It has taken five years to complete and is part of the larger Festival Headland overhaul, a new events area in the resort.
It was officially unveiled by comedian Ken Dodd.
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