A number of new Tesco Extra stores are being built in town centres as local authorities look to arrest the shift to out of town retail sites that are having a harmful impact on the prosperity of the traditional high street. By bringing the large retailers back to the town centres they are hoping to rejuvenate whole areas by bring additional footfall to the small independent retailers in the towns.

But there is rarely the space to provide all the on-site parking needed to support a busy hypermarket, Tescos are solving this problem by building their stores on ‘stilts’ with the ground level being used for parking with Travelators providing access to the shopping floors above.

This results in a large number of structural steel I-Beam columns throughout the car park and cars and columns in close proximity will inevitably come into unwanted contact.

The large numbers of columns involved makes the installation of normal Berry Column Buffas more time consuming and disruptive than Tesco would have liked as each needs to be concreted in to absorb the impact forces in a vehicle collision. However, I-Beams are inherently much tougher than the lighting columns, pipework or ducting often protected by Column Buffas so Berry Systems developed an I-Beam Protector that mounts directly to the column and requires no foundations or footings. While not protecting the column from all impact forces the steel mountings will absorb most of the impact from a car and all the cosmetic damage.

Available in full circle or semi-circular options, I-Beam Protectors can also guard any service pipes or ducting running down the beam provided sizes and locations are advised in advance so that the fittings can be customised to accommodate this requirement.