left to right - Colin Garland, Mechtool facilities manager, Rob Turnbull, AV Dawson project facilities manager and James Moscrop, Mechtool engineer, stand outside the North Sea Supply Base
SeaDragon fires £4.5m investment for North Sea Supply Base
THE biggest fabrication project to hit the Tees Valley for decades is proving a boon time for AV Dawson which has unveiled £4.5m expansion plans to create more manufacturing space.
AV Dawson is expanding its North Sea Supply Base (NSSB) after contractors working on the SeaDragon Project snapped up its entire fabrication workspace for the next three years. SeaDragon Offshore announced in 2006 that it would be working with the Tees Alliance Group - of which AV Dawson is a major supplier - on a US$ 1.8bn project to address a chronic global shortage of deep-water, harsh environment exploration rigs.
AV Dawson has a notable presence on the Middlesbrough skyline as it boasts the largest construction halls on the River Tees. The enormous hanger-like manufacturing zones stand 160-feet tall (the height of 13 double decker buses) and 330-feet-wide - capable of housing two Boeing 767s side by side.
The North Sea Supply Base (NSSB) is normally used by an array of manufacturers working on many different projects, predominantly for the offshore industry, but its fabrication space has been hired in its entirety to house construction work on the SeaDragon project.
Two Darlington-based companies, Mechtool Engineering and Cleveland Bridge, have rented the fabrication space for a three-year period which has prompted AV Dawson to expand NSSB.
Plans have been drawn up for a three-phase expansion with the initial stage being to create a new 30,000 sq ft unit. The steelwork for the first unit is currently being erected and AV Dawson has purchased an additional 3.5 acres on the site of the former Newboulds Pies factory. The additional land will enable two further identical units to be built with each phase costing approximately £1.5m to build.
Rob Turnbull, Project Facilities Manager of AV Dawson, said: "The North Sea Supply Base is the premier project rental facility on the River Tees and it is fantastic news that it will be playing a part in the construction of this billion-dollar-plus project."
