Box profile roofing sheets can be used in housing, warehouses, and many other applications, but one possible use could soon be seen across Leeds and Bradford.
Last month, the first planned routes for the West Yorkshire Mass Transit system were unveiled, with one line connecting Leeds and Bradford city centres and another running from the White Rose Shopping Centre via Elland Road to St James’s Hospital.
As with tram systems elsewhere in the UK, such as in Sheffield and Manchester, there will be a need for some shelter on rainy days. While Perspex is one option, it may be less durable and more prone to damage (especially vandalism) than more robust metal sheeting.
Such covers will also withstand severe weather and the shape will enable water to be channelled away, allowing effective drainage to help passengers stay dry.
Indeed, corrugated metal sheeting can often be seen at railway stations and at bus stops, providing lightweight roofing, with the advantage that this can be located on a cantilevered structure.
As with similar but far larger cantilevered roofs used at sports grounds with no pillars holding the roof up, there is an unobstructed view. While that offers spectators at matches a better view of the pitch, such a lack of obstruction not only helps people see an approaching bus, train or tram and avoids a potential obstacle when trying to emerge from the shelter to board.
So far, planning has not gone as far as establishing what the tram stops will be like or even where they will be located, but if sheet metal roofing is used, it will be far from unusual.
More technical details of the scheme may soon be worked out in a new partnership that has just been established between the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and experts from local universities, involving researchers from the Institute of Railway Research at the University of Huddersfield and the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds.