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Contact | Sep 12 Region in focus

Region in focus: South East

SUSSEX

South coast offshore wind farm construction off to concrete start

SOUTH EAST

Major projects underway l The £6.4m Oxford Academy. The main new build works are due to start in October and finish by September 2013. Kier Construction is working with architect Nightingale Associates. Kier and Nightingale previously worked together on Castle School in Newbury, which opened last year, and have three other projects in progress under the West Berkshire Council JKD Programme.

Projects in the pipeline l Morgan Sindall has won a £16.75m

refurbishment deal at Gatwick Airport, under its £1.2bn upgrades and

improvements framework. l Morgan Sindall has also been awarded a £6.6m contract to build a new teaching block at Canterbury College in Kent. Due to complete in autumn 2013, the project includes the demolition of the existing four-storey Herring building and the construction of a new three-storey teaching block to complement the existing newly redeveloped campus.

Number of CIOB Members: 6,370

Number of people employed in construction: 323,170

Economic forecast Total construction output is expected to increase at a rate of 0.8% to 2014, weaker than the UK’s average of 1.7%. This muted growth will be largely due to a stronger performance from the new work sector, but a decline in repair and maintenance. Employment is predicted to total around 322,900 in 2014, 0.1% lower than 2010’s level. Source: The Construction Index

E.ON estimates Sussex offshore windfram will generate up to 700MW

The first stages of a new offshore wind farm off the coast of Sussex are now underway. Specialist manufacturer Mabey Bridge has secured

its first offshore renewables contract since it opened its £38m wind turbine tower factory in May 2011. The deal – with Fugro Seacore – will see a 46m-long, 2.5m-diameter, 170-tonne monopile manufactured and delivered to E.ON. It will to be used as the foundation for a met mast for the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, which is proposed for a site 13km from the nearest point offshore in Sussex. Manufacturing of the monopile and topside took

place at Mabey Bridge’s 33,000m² bespoke Chepstow- based facility. The monopile was delivered to installation contractor Fugro Seacore in March. A monopile is a can-rolled steel tube embedded in the seabed which provides the foundation for the topside structure above sea level. In this case, a met mast will sit on top of the monopile. Met masts analyse weather and wind patterns, to allow wind farm developers such as E.ON to design the optimum

layout for offshore wind farms. Fugro Seacore was attracted by Mabey Bridge’s

status as one of the UK’s only producers of wind turbine towers. David Buzzard, project manager of Fugro Seacore, said he was impressed with the company’s facilities and added “they are clearly delivering in what is a new market place for them”. Alex Smale, UK director of Mabey Bridge, said the

project is “engineering on a grand scale, just like our worldwide bridge-building business whose heritage stretches back more than 160 years”. E.ON was awarded the right to seek consent to

develop a large-scale offshore wind farm off the Sussex coastline by the Crown Estate in the Round 3 offshore wind programme. E.ON has started detailed environmental and engineering surveys to fully understand the potential of the area, and believes that this will support a wind farm with a capacity of up to 700MW. E.ON is about to embark on a 12-week community consultation of its draft proposals.