Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 17
Finley Structures managing
director John Finley (centre),
Shepherd Construction project
manager Neil Matthias (left) and
Merchant Place Developments
director Geoff Hunton.
By Martin Walker
FINLEY STRUCTURES BAG HITACHI CONTRACT
Family-run steel company Finley
Structures has been awarded a multimillion pound deal to construct Hitachi
Rail Europe’s train-building factory in
County Durham.
“We know Finley Structures will give 100%
commitment to the project and look forward to
getting started.
”
Darlington firm Shepherd Construction, the
main contractor for the project, has given
Finley’s the task of constructing the steel frame
of the main factory on the 42,700sqm site at
Aycliffe Business Park.
The company has worked with Shepherd
Construction on a 1,000-tonne project at Drax
Power Station in Selby, North Yorkshire, and
the 950-tonne National Renewable Energy
Centre (NAREC) in Blyth, as well as a 500-tonne
contract at Ercall Wood Technology College
in Telford and a 400-tonne job at Daventry
Academy, Northampton.
Finley’s, based within a mile of Merchant Park,
where Hitachi’s new £82m facility will be built,
has also been handed a secondary steelwork
package in a huge contract involving a total of
2,000 tonnes of steel.
The factory, which will include a research and
development centre, is expected to take about
20 months to complete, and will support more
than 200 jobs in its construction.
It will then employ 730 people once open by
the end of summer 2015, and it’s estimated
thousands more in the supply chain.
Neil Matthias, Shepherd’s project manager for
the Hitachi factory, says the deal is another
example of how the firm is committed to using
local companies after appointing Rushyfordbased Hall Construction to carry out the
groundworks.
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