High Speed Protection For Portland College

Yeoman Shield provided protection robust enough to withstand the everyday bumps and scrapes that occurred in the college's corridors, whilst at the same time being aesthetically pleasing.

Set in Sherwood Forest, Portland College is a national residential specialist college for teenagers with a wide range of physical disabilities.

Providing learning opportunities for up to 300 students aged from 16 upwards, the college is the foremost of its kind in the UK and has seen over 9000 students benefit from its customised learning environment since its doors opened in 1950.

A large proportion of the students rely on the use of a wheelchair, many of which are electrically powered, very heavy and quite fast.

With the day to day traffic passing through the school's corridors, this means that wall and corner damage in the college is inevitable.

Even low level protection rails put in place by Yeoman Shield were damaged, so it was vital that a more durable solution was developed.

After an extensive on-site survey, a design was agreed between Portland College and Yeoman Shield that would be robust enough to withstand the everyday bumps and scrapes that occurred in the college's corridors, whilst at the same time being aesthetically pleasing.

To meet the requirements of the brief, Yeoman Shield came up with a steel corner guard that was longer than usual.

This meant that it was able to wrap further round the corners, so ensuring that any impact was taken on the face and not near a joint.

In addition, the experts in surface protection also recommended a bright colour to highlight the corner, assisting the partially sighted as recommended by the Disability Discrimination Act.

Once the specially made high visibility powder coated steel sections were complete, the faces were covered with impact absorbent vinylac, which ideally matched the existing protection rails, providing a seamless finish.

The design and problem solving ability demonstrated by Yeoman Shield was such a success that the college then decided to protect all corners into the rooms with the solution, as well as the corridors.

Marc Jackson, estates and facilities manager at Portland College says, "The protection installed at the college is the perfect illustration of how adaptable Yeoman Shield can be when it comes to specific problem-solving briefs.

We hope that thanks to the high quality solution we were all able to bring to the project, the corridors will now be able to withstand the everyday wear and tear they experience.".

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