VINCI brings in Skanska on £138m forge building contract

Skanska has been appointed to undertake piling and ground engineering works for a new facility being built for Sheffield Forgemasters by VINCI Building.  

It follows main contractor VINCI securing the UK’s largest open-die forging construction contract at the Brightside Lane site, valued at £138 million, for delivery of a 13,800-sqm building.  

Sheffield Forgemasters is investing heavily across its site to provide forging and machining facilities which will support growing demand for defence work.  

The forging line will service defence and commercial work in sectors such as civil nuclear power, creating a new generation of engineers and designers, trained to work with Industry 4.0 technologies.  

It will be complemented by a proposed new machining facility, housing some of the world’s largest and most advanced five-axis Vertical Turning Lathes. 

Under a £12.1 million deal, Cementation Skanska will construct a 200-metre-long secant pile wall for the new 40-metre-high superstructure, supporting an 8-10-metre-deep excavation. 

Of the 1,300 piles to be installed 300 will be rotary bored, while the remaining 1,000 will be CFA piles which are quicker and cheaper to install and help to reduce carbon emissions. 

“We reviewed the initial design assumptions and, through further analysis and testing, reduced the number of rotary bore piles, replacing them with CFA piles,” said Andy Entwistle, managing director at Cementation Skanska.  

“It really shows the benefits of bringing together design and construction capabilities from the earliest stages of a project.” 

Chris Winspear from VINCI Building, added: “We are delighted that we have now completed the demolition and prepared the first areas of site ready to receive the substructure works for the new building.” 

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