Sheffield Forgemasters has been granted planning permission to build a landmark 30,000 sqm machining facility on brownfield land in the City’s Meadowhall district.
The new facility, at a 16-acre site, is set to form one of the ‘world’s most advanced large machining facilities’, to support manufacture for UK defence programmes.
Work is already underway to prepare the site, with the building set to cover a space equal to 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Sheffield Forgemasters said it will also contain some of the largest five-axis Vertical Turning Lathes produced.
Last April, VINCI’s building arm was appointed as delivery partner for the UK’s largest open-die forging construction contract, valued at £138 million for Sheffield Forgemasters’ Brightside Lane site.
Sheffield Forgemasters is investing heavily across its site to provide forging and machining facilities which will support growing demand for defence work.
Then in May, it was announced that Skanska would undertake piling and ground engineering works for the facility.
Plans for the new machining facility detail a main building with an around 272.5 x 110 metre footprint, 32 metres tall, near the River Don and designed to complement the historic look of the existing buildings.
A second, proposed 3,500 sqm building, with a state-of-the-art test-house facility and a dedicated training area, will accompany main construction.
Machine tools specialist, WaldrichSiegen, is building a series of large Vertical Turning Lathes and associated machines for the machining hall, which will be installed and maintained by McDowell Machine Tools.
The machine shop project team includes:
- Arup: ecological and travel assessments
- Bond Bryan Architects, and JLL: site acquisition and planning submissions.
Craig Fisher, programmes director at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “This planning agreement will see construction of the largest machining hall of its kind in the UK, and regeneration of a prominent brownfield site in the city’s industrial centre.
“It signals an amazing investment for the city and for the wider UK, which will create highly-skilled engineering jobs for decades to come, fully supporting our national defence programmes.
“The sheer scale of the building will make it an iconic landmark and will eclipse the construction of the UK’s largest open-die forging-line, which is also underway on our adjacent Brightside Lane site.”
Joanna Gabrilatsou, regional head of planning at JLL, said: “Approval of the new machine shop is essential to allow Sheffield Forgemasters to operate in a modern, fit-for-purpose facility, and is highly beneficial to the city and the region’s economy.”
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