Heywood company Pillar-Wedge Limited feels on top of the world after being chosen to carry out extensive steel galvanizing work for a new building to be erected just 50ft from the top of Mount Snowdon in Wales.

The building - incorporating a visitor centre, café and medical facilities for climbers - is due to be built on a ledge 3,560 ft above sea level. It will replace an older building in the same spot which the Prince of Wales once publicly called “the highest slum in Britain”.

In total, more than 100 tonnes of structural steel for the new summit building have been galvanized, prior to being transported to the site in sections on Snowdon’s mountain railway.

The summit of Snowdon is the highest point in England and Wales, and the new building will need to withstand harsh environmental conditions, such as 100mph winds and temperatures of minus 20°C. More than 2,500 bolts will be used to fix the steel-based structure together.

Pillar Wedge Ltd’s customer, EvadX Ltd of Rhyl, in North Wales, is one of the country’s leading constructional steel fabrication specialists. It had all the steel sections for the new summit building completely shot-blasted prior to galvanizing and then completed an ‘off-site’ temporary build to test the new structure at ground level before starting to transport it up the mountain.

Danny Flynn, Pillar-Wedge Ltd’s Sales Manager, said: “This is one of the largest construction projects we have tackled – and definitely the highest! The top of Snowdon is one of the toughest places in Britain and will really test the quality of our galvanizing.

“But we are confident the steel will remain in excellent, corrosion-free condition for many years to come, even in such a hostile environment, and we are delighted to be associated with this new building which will be so well known by so many visitors to the mountain.”