Liverpool engineering firm in running for Heathrow hub opportunities

Merseyside engineering company Cammell Laird is welcoming the official launch of the Heathrow expansion tour of shortlisted sites seeking to become pre-assembly hubs for the construction of the airport’s new £16bn third runway.

Cammell Laird is one of 65 shortlisted sites to be visited on the tour in the first half of 2018, headed by Heathrow’s chairman, Lord Deighton, ahead of opening a pre-qualification questionnaire process later this year.

Two sites operated by Cammell Laird – Campbeltown Road and the MEA Park Wirral Waters in Beaufort Road – are on the shortlist to be reviewed.

Heathrow will be the first major infrastructure project in the UK to pioneer the large-scale use of logistics hubs – aiming to build as much of the project off-site as possible. The hubs will work by pre-assembling components off-site before transporting them in consolidated loads to Heathrow as they are needed.

Cammell Laird energy division’s managing director Jonathan Brown said the company has tabled a strong bid for Heathrow, as it looks to diversify into new sectors supplying large modular build structures and engineering services.

“Being shortlisted helps Cammell Laird ramp up awareness of its demonstrated capabilities for supply of plant to industries outside maritime,” he said. “Heathrow’s expansion is just the type and size of engineering work we are targeting. With our unique facilities, highly skilled workforce and coastal location we can supply the Heathrow expansion project as well as sectors like nuclear new build, oil and gas, utilities, renewables and rail. Our bid is further strengthened by our close relationship with Peel and its ports and logistics infrastructure in Wirral, Liverpool and along Manchester Ship Canal.”

Brown said Cammell Laird is offering Heathrow a wide variety of benefits drawn from its experience as a major contractor in the maritime industry managing multi-million contracts such as building the £160m Sir David Attenborough polar research vessel and the supply of flight decks for the new aircraft carriers.

“We have an established local and national supply chain network well suited to Heathrow’s requirements to prefabricate, preassemble and consolidate components, “ he said.

“Building off-site at Cammell Laird will deliver better quality and more competitive products compared with building on any congested construction site.  We estimate an increased efficiency of 30% for constructing at Cammell Laird sites compared with on-site build. Moreover, we have deep water access to transport large loads by sea which lowers carbon emissions and reduces road and rail congestion.”

Brown said another prime benefit Cammell Laird is offering Heathrow is its partnership with the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC) which has co-located in a manufacturing test centre at Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead site.

“Nuclear AMRC helps us become more efficient and competitive by introducing advanced techniques and technologies in the manufacturing and assembly process,” he said. “It is a core part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, an alliance of seven leading manufacturing research centres backed by the UK’s innovation agency Innovate UK”