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FINLEY HELPS TO REGENERATE SUNDERLAND ’ S VAUX SITE
Finley Structures is helping to regenerate an important area in another major North- East city .
After completing steelwork on the
Riverwalk regeneration development in
Durham city , the family-run business has fabricated and erected 550 tonnes of steel on the former Vaux site in Sunderland , for main contractor Carillion . The £ 20m , state-of-the-art development should be completed by June 2018 and kick-start what is being lined up as a 20-year project . The five-storey building , the first of many planned for the city centre site , will be a 60,000 sq ft office block which could also house a bar , cafe and restaurant on the ground floor . The regeneration work is being delivered by Siglion , a joint venture set up between Carillion and Sunderland City Council . Carillion awarded the steel element of the project to Finley Structures , which earlier this year completed an 1,100-tonne project at the £ 30m Riverwalk development in Durham . As well as fabricating and erecting 550 tonnes of steel at the former Vaux site , Finley also installed six floors of PC concrete floor planks , three PC stairs and a PC lift-shaft , and completed their scope of works in the summer . The firm ’ s operations manager Jim Graham said : “ This was a particularly pleasing project for us , not least because of the economic importance of the project to Sunderland as a city , but also because of the many addedvalue items within it that we completed
“ It has supported local jobs in its construction from within our own company , while we ’ ve also used local labour to erect the steel , and it was delivered on an extremely tight programme , so all-in-all it ’ s been a win-win project .”
for Carillion , including off-site intumescent painting . “ It has supported local jobs in its construction from within our own company , while we ’ ve also used local labour to erect the steel , and it was delivered on an extremely tight programme , so all-in-all it ’ s been a winwin project .” The former brewery site in Sunderland closed down in 1999 and has stood derelict ever since . Tesco bought the land in 2001 , two years after it became available , but failed to build a supermarket there , and the site was then bought by Sunderland City Council in 2011 . Irene Lucas CBE , chief executive of Sunderland City Council , said : “ Sunderland has taken huge leaps forward in attracting innovative , high-growth businesses to the city , as well as supporting start-ups to succeed – particularly in the knowledge economy , an area in which Sunderland has achieved the second fastest rate of growth outside London .” Siglion chief executive John Seager added : “ The Vaux site is such a focal point for Sunderland and its position as one of the main entrance points of the city centre is hugely important for those visiting . “ The Vaux development , when it is completed , will be a space that will create new jobs , workplaces and original communities . “ It ’ s a huge step forward and we hope that the second phase will follow soon after the first building .”
WHO WE WORK WITH ...
We ’ re currently working with all these major national contractors ...
ISSUE 14 / WINTER 2018