A UK steelwork fabricator’s contract to build part of the GBP 790 million Forth Replacement Crossing will bring construction work to Scotland, it was claimed last night.
Cleveland Bridge has been awarded the order for supporting steel on the approach viaducts to the new bridge. The work will be split between the company’s headquarters in Darlington and bases in Rosyth and North and South Queensferry.
General manager Andy Hall said that Cleveland Bridge had beaten international competition.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the final assembly stages of the steel components would be carried out locally. He said that “On the FRC, over 300 Scottish firms have already benefitted from subcontracts and 865 of supply orders on the project have gone to Scots firms. Across the project there are around 1,200 people directly employed, and with three-quarters of the project still to go there are still many opportunities for Scottish businesses to benefit.”
“Our record investment in transport infrastructure continues to directly benefit Scottish jobs and businesses. Transport Scotland contracts alone account for more than a quarter of civil engineering construction activity in Scotland.”
Motherwell’s Tata Steel will provide some of the materials to produce the girders, a move welcomed by politicians and trade unions.
Mr Michael Leahy, general secretary of steel union Community, said it is important that Scottish industry, supported by supply chains across the UK, is helped to maximise opportunities.
He said that “This is a welcome development for all those Scottish and UK steelworkers who were snubbed by the original procurement process. We are hopeful that this will now mean that some Scottish steel could be part of such a prestigious project, as I understand Tata Steel have a track record of supplying steel to Cleveland Bridge that dates back years.”
Central Scotland SNP MSP Clare Adamson said that “The FRC is an absolutely essential project for Scotland’s infrastructure and sustainable economic growth and will continue to create 1,000s more jobs for Scottish people before it opens to traffic in 2016.”
Labour spokesman for infrastructure and capital investment, Richard Baker said that “While this is welcome for many Scottish construction firms, it is already too late because of the Scottish Government’s failure to ensure a level playing field for them to compete for contracts.”
