Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business issue 32 | Page 9

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 9
Construction firm hoping
to benefit from burgeoning
education sector
By Martin Walker
Finley Structures
estimating manager
Andrew Workman at
Teesside University’s
award-winning The Curve
building, which the Aycliffe
firm helped to build.
Family-run steel firm Finley
Structures is hoping to
benefit from what it says is
a construction boom in the
education sector.
T
he N ewton Aycliffe-based fabrication
specialists have won two more
education contracts which come off the
back of several projects in the sector over the
last year.
Finley Structures have previously helped
to build Roundhay School in Leeds for
Interserve Construction, Ryde Academy on
the Isle of Wight for Sir Robert McAlpine,
Doncaster Sixth Form College for BAM
Construction, George Mitchell School in
London for Bowmer and Kirkland and SEMH
School in Seacroft, East Leeds, also for
Interserve.
The firm earlier this year worked on a
337-tonne project for Bowmer and Kirkland,
to fabricate and erect Krishna Avanti School
in Edgware, London.
And Finley also fabricated and erected the
steel frame for The Curve in Middlesbrough –
Teesside University’s eye-catching structure
in Middlesbrough which has won a series of
accolades.
The £20m Curve building, which opened
in 2015, was rated ‘Excellent’ by the Building
Research Establishment as part of its
BREEAM (Building Research Establishment
Environmental Assessment Method)
standard, the world’s longest established
method of assessing, rating, and certifying
the sustainability of buildings, and also won
three architecture awards at the 2016 Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
North East Awards.
Finley Structures has now won two new
education contracts involving a total of nearly
1,000 tonnes of steel – a 625-tonne contract
at Bannerdale School in Sheffield for Bam
Construction which is now complete, and a
360-tonne project at the University of Hull for
Henry Boot Construction.
Finley’s estimating manager Andrew
Workman said: “We’ve completed several
projects in the education sector over the last
year and these two new contracts underline
our reputation in the industry.
“We’re seeing a definite upward curve
in education contracts at the moment, with
particularly universities looking to expand.
“Newcastle, Durham, Teesside,
Leeds, Lincoln, York, Warwick, Coventry,
Birmingham and Bristol universities are all
building, and we’re tendering for a lot of work
in that sector at the moment, which is very
promising.”
Finley is working for the first time with
national contractor Henry Boot Construction,
which has sites in Derbyshire and
Manchester, on a new Sports Village at the
University of Hull, involving 360 tonnes of
steel.
And Finley has recently completed work
for Bam Construction at Bannerdale School,
Sheffield, involving 625 tonnes of steel as
well as installing pre-cast concrete floor
planks, four pre-cast concrete stair cases, a
lift shaft and ground beams.
“The education sector, in particular, has
been a significant area of growth for us in
recent months.
Ironically, it was this sector which really
kept us going through the recession post
2008-09,” added Raistrick.
Finley Structures last year completed
the 550-tonne steelwork on the Riverwalk
regeneration development in Durham
city. The family firm, founded by John
Finley in 2000, has over the years worked
on a number of high-profile contracts,
including Hitachi Rail’s new factory on
Aycliffe Business Park, which opened in
September 2015, Nissan’s new Leaf factory
in Washington and a new factory for car parts
maker Nifco in Eaglescliffe.