Liverpool dominates £1.1bn engineering awards

Two of Peel’s Liverpool projects took pride of place at the North West Civil Engineering Awards announced at a glitzy dinner at the Blackpool Hilton.

Out of projects representing more than £1.1bn of infrastructure investment, the prestigious Large Civil Engineering Project of the Year award went to the £75m Gladstone Biomass Terminal, built to support the EU’s largest decarbonisation project at Drax’s Selby power station.

The project employed Graham Construction as both principal designer and principal contractor.

Peel’s other entry, the £400m Liverpool2 Superport development – the largest project in this year’s awards, which employed BAM Infraconsult as principal designer and BAM Nuttall as principal contractor – was Highly Commended.  

Liverpool also took the North West Civil Engineering Heritage Award, for the Queensway Mersey Tunnel. Completed in 1934 after nine years of work, the tunnel was the largest road tunnel in the world at that time, and nowadays carries around 35,000 vehicles a day.

The Small and Medium Project of the Year went to the Carter’s Bridge project in Wigan, commissioned by Network Rail, designed by Tony Gee and Partners and built by J Murphy and Sons. United Utilities’ new water intake and fish pass at Swindale in Cumbria, designed and built by Coffey Construction Ltd, was Highly Commended.
 
The Community Award, for civil engineering projects which have gone the extra mile to involve the local community, went to the £2.8m Currock Bridge Cycleway Scheme in Carlisle, funded by Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership and delivered by Cumbria Council Council, Mott MacDonald and Story Contracting. Rochdale Council’s £4.2 million Reveal the Roch Project, with CH2M Hill as principal designer and VBA Ltd as principal contractor, was Highly Commended.

Darrell Matthews, North West regional director of the Institution of Civil Engineers, said: “This year’s nominations they reflect the North West’s huge importance to the UK economy, as well as showcasing the breadth of civil engineering skill – with road and rail bridges, a port development, a motorway, a tramway and a busway, flood defences and water infrastructure plus iconic and innovative building design – much of the engineering that makes modern civilisation possible.

“Given the large number of entries and the very high standards on display, the judges’ decisions were difficult, so we thank everyone involved for their nominations, and our congratulations to the winners.”