SeAH Wind starts commercial production on huge £ 900m monopile factory
BUSINESS BITES
NEWS
Crown Square- Gresham development in Middlesbrough is making progress.
Work begins to safeguard £ 200m regeneration site
Work is being carried out to safeguard a site earmarked for a major £ 200m regeneration scheme in central Middlesbrough.
Crown Square is a development planned for Gresham that will see the derelict site become home to a Fairfield by Marriott hotel alongside high-quality accommodation for students and young professionals.
Hoardings have now been erected by lead contractor Wates at the land ahead of preparatory groundworks taking place, which will ultimately clear the way for the start of construction of phase one.
Separate works to erect scaffolding at the exterior of the Crown on the corner of Borough Road and Linthorpe Road are also to take place in coming days.
This will allow for the reopening of the footpath outside the Crown for use by pedestrians.
Phase one of Crown Square will see the development of build-to-rent properties and student accommodation – along with one of the country’ s first Fairfield by Marriott hotels.
Developers iMpeC and Buccleuch Property have teamed up with Middlesbrough Development Corporation to create the town’ s biggest development in generations, with an ambitious vision to create 1,500 new homes, 4,000 jobs and both attract and retain talent in the town.
A decision about the future of the Crown will form part of later phases of Crown Square and will be taken by the Middlesbrough Development Corporation board.
Middlesbrough Development Corporation chair Tony Parkinson said:“ This site is primed for regeneration and local people will now be pleased to see activity taking place.”
SeAH Wind starts commercial production on huge £ 900m monopile factory
SeAH Wind has started commercial production for its inaugural project, delivering monopile foundations for Ørsted’ s Hornsea 3 Offshore Wind Farm.
The milestone was marked by the cutting of the first steel plates – an essential first step in the manufacturing process of monopile foundations – almost exactly three years since ground was broken on the development.
It signifies the beginning of operations at SeAH Wind’ s flagship facility on Teesside, the first bespoke UK purpose-built factory for XXL monopile foundations dedicated to the offshore wind industry.
The advanced manufacturing process will involve a series of complex, high-precision operations including plate preparation, rolling, welding, non-destructive testing, coating and final assembly.
The finished monopiles, some of which
Ceremony – SeAH Wind representatives at the plate-cutting ceremony( from left) CEO Chris Sohn, president Joosung Lee, production manager Paul Martin, CRO David Jack, COO Peter Ivey, head of engineering Alex Kwon and commercial project manager Anthony Brown.
will measure more than 100m in length and weigh more than 2,000 tonnes, are essential components in connecting the offshore wind turbine to the seabed.
BUSINESS BITES
RIVER QUAY BACKING Ørsted’ s Hornsea 3 has signed a lease agreement for up to 300,000 sq m at Steel River Quay, Teesworks.
This huge area will play a vital role in construction of the Hornsea 3 wind farm as it will be used to collect and store key components, such as monopile foundations and secondary steel, before they are loaded onto offshore wind installation vessels.
The weight of each monopile can be more than 2,300 tonnes, almost as much as Nelson’ s Column in London’ s Trafalgar Square.
AIRPORT’ S AI INVESTMENT A global first is primed for launch at Teesside Airport after a £ 1m deal to host a driverless baggage and passenger transport system was rubber-stamped.
An autonomous baggage and passenger system will begin a pilot at Teesside Airport this autumn after the Tees Valley Combined Authority agreed a contract with aviation firm Aurrigo International. The company’ s eight-seater Auto-Shuttle passenger vehicle is primed to begin trial activities in October, while an Auto-DollyTug – a driverless way of moving cargo and bags around airports – is set for operation in January.
THORNABY TRAINING CENTRE Spades in the ground have marked a major milestone in the development of a new £ 14.7m specialist engineering training centre in Thornaby.
Work is now underway on the new NETA Training facility, designed to equip learners with the engineering and construction skills to meet core industrial demands.
The new centre was made possible with a £ 4.5m investment from the Town Deal Fund, along with significant funding from the Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
LEGAL MERGER Ward Hadaway has confirmed the completion of a merger with Stockton-based law firm the Endeavour Partnership.
Now operating under the Ward Hadaway name and identity, the existing Endeavour Partnership team will continue to operate from offices on Teesdale Business Park, providing the same legal services to its clients for which it has become renowned over its 25- year history.
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