Birkenhead engineering company Cammell Laird says it plans to ramp up its campaign to win a share of the £16bn contract to support the expansion of Heathrow Airport, following a delegation visit inspecting its bid.
The Heathrow delegation came to Cammell Laird as part of a nationwide tour of the “longlist” of 65 sites seeking to become a hub for pre-assembly facilities for Heathrow’s third runway. The tour is visiting each location in the first half of 2018 ahead of opening a pre-qualification questionnaire process later this year, with contract awards expected in 2019. The two sites proposed by Cammell Laird are Campbeltown Road and the MEA Park Wirral Waters in Beaufort Road.
Cammell Laird energy division managing director Jonathan Brown said the company was able to bring heavyweight political support to the visit, a key factor in Heathrow’s requirements.
“We believe we have a very strong bid and to have the Metro mayor Steve Rotherham, LEP chairman Asif Hamid and CEO Mark Basnett plus Wirral council’s leader Phil Davies here to present to the delegation underlined just how serious we are,” he said. “Heathrow’s expansion is a nationally significant project and we want to secure a role for our business and for the Liverpool City Region. Few other companies can match our history, innovation, highly skilled workforce, supply chain, facilities and coastal location. We have a proven track record of being the primary contractor on major multi-million pound projects like the RRS Sir David Attenborough polar ship. Our bid is fully supported by our partnership with Peel and its ports and logistics infrastructure on Merseyside.”
“During the visit we were able to showcase three prime strengths that really makes our bid stand out. First, ours is a bid rooted in expertise and experience. We are not a start-up, our proposal is an extension of the services we already provide. Second, is skills. We took the delegation to the Engineering College, neighbouring the Cammell Laird site, and demonstrated the quality of skilled workers and training provision that the region already has in place. In addition, we were able to show how we could support the skills legacy of the project providing cutting edge training and creating jobs for the future. Our third strength is Liverpool City Region’s commitment to become ‘the place’ that specialises in offsite modular construction in-line with UK’s Industrial Strategy. This includes our regional commitment to a low carbon economy further supporting Heathrow’s desire to reduce the carbon footprint of its expansion.
Heathrow has said bidders will not only need to illustrate engineering prowess, they will also need to demonstrate a skilled and dedicated workforce, capability to collaborate on the nationwide project and good connectivity allowing output to be easily transported to Heathrow.
Lord Deighton, Chairman at Heathrow Airport, said:
“Heathrow expansion is a national infrastructure project that will benefit the whole country, including right across the North West, so it is hugely exciting to have a delegation from Heathrow in the region as part of the latest stage of our nationwide tour of potential Logistics Hubs locations.
“Logistics Hubs are instrumental in our aim to ensure that expansion spreads the huge potential of tens of billions of pounds in economic benefits across the UK and will help to transform the construction industry and build a lasting skills legacy for future generations in various locations across the country and beyond London.
“We are working in partnership with local employers, councils and entrepreneurs to support new opportunities for the region arising from Heathrow expansion through new jobs, economic growth and easier and faster journeys to and from Heathrow and the North West.”
Background
Heathrow Airport is launching a nationwide tour of 65 sites still in the running to be the off-site construction centres for Heathrow expansion. ‘Logistics Hubs’ will help ensure that businesses across the UK can form part of the airport’s supply chain, enabling Heathrow’s new runway to deliver a legacy of construction excellence across the UK.
This announcement is the latest major milestone in the delivery of Heathrow expansion, and comes ahead of an expected Parliamentary vote on the policy framework in the first half of this year.
The sites will be used to pre-assemble components of an expanded Heathrow before transporting them in consolidated loads to the airport. Heathrow expansion will be the first major infrastructure project to use off-site construction centres. The hubs will play a key role in supporting expansion’s efficient delivery, mitigating the impact that concentrated construction activity would otherwise have on the airport’s local communities.
At each site visit, airport representatives will meet the businesses applying to become a key part of the expansion supply chain strategy. The Logistics Hubs will have the opportunity to demonstrate strengths in a range of areas, as Britain’s only hub airport seeks out the best businesses to partner with and deliver Heathrow expansion. Bidders will not only need to illustrate engineering prowess, they will also need to demonstrate a skilled and dedicated workforce, capability to collaborate on the nationwide project and good connectivity allowing output to be easily transported to Heathrow.
The 65 sites were longlisted from an initial 121 applications in November 2017. Heathrow representatives will visit all longlisted locations in the first half of 2018, and aim to open a pre-qualification questionnaire process later this year.
These Logistics Hubs are essential in ensuring Heathrow expansion delivers for the whole country by spreading jobs, boosting productivity and modernising the construction industry outside of London and the South East. They will ensure that 60% of procurement spend will be outside of London, spreading the benefits of local investment up and down the country. As well as the direct benefits, new research from WPI Economics shows that, if adopted more widely, the approach could spur growth in off-site construction and lead to a productivity boost worth £30 billion for the industry outside of London by 2025.
Heathrow’s Logistics Hubs feature in the Government’s Industrial Strategy, listed as an example of how to develop skills across the UK and create conditions where successful businesses can emerge. Heathrow has also begun working with other major infrastructure companies to explore how the final sites could be used for future projects.
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 just as they are needed. This method will boost the project’s efficiency and cut emissions by transporting components to site in fewer lorries. Research by WPI Economics revealed that integrating an off-site manufacturing supply chain into a major project has the potential to reduce the overall cost of the project by as much as 25% whilst speeding up delivery by up to 30%.
For more information visit: https://your.heathrow.com/takingbritainfurther/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Heathrow_Logistics_Brochure_25.04.17.pdf