Finley Structures has won praise from a main contractor as it continues to work on a high-profile North-East sports development.

Construction firm Galliford Try awarded family-run Finley Structures a contract to fabricate and erect 640 tonnes of steel for Durham University’s expansion of its sports facilities.

Work started earlier this year on the £31m development at Maiden Castle, on the outskirts of Durham city.

The facility, once completed, will include an indoor cricket hall, a 12 court multi-use sports hall, suitable for international and national competitions, a martial arts dojo, fitness suite, purpose-built recovery facilities and high-performance weights rooms.

Once the new facility is ready in August 2019, the existing centre will be refurbished, increasing the facilities for fitness classes and building a specialist sports laboratory.

A ground-breaking ceremony was held in August as Finley Structures started work on fabricating the steel, which has now been erected on site.

Galliford Try senior projects manager Paul Mares said: “Finley Structures have been involved with the Maiden Castle project from our initial bid, assisting the erection sequence and value engineering, ensuring both Galliford Try and our client have a robust price and programme.

“Throughout the design stage both Finley Structures and their design team have been proactive in managing the process to ensure they arrived on site as planned.

“Once on site the team have been a pleasure to work with, the frame and metal decking packages have been erected safely, to programme by a team who have identified any potential issues in advance and worked with the wider team to resolve ensuring no delays have been incurred.

“This has not only been noticed by Galliford Try, but also our client who has commented on the speed of erection. I look forward to working with the team again.”

The Maiden Castle development is the second major project to be awarded from Galliford Try this year, with Finley Structures also currently working on a 930-tonne contract at the CTAR Building in Leeds.

Finley Structures estimating manager Andrew Workman said: “We’ve been working closely with Galliford Try for some time now and have struck up an excellent understanding.

“We’ve worked with them on several projects and we’re delighted to hear they’re happy with the job we’re doing.”

Finley Structures, formed by John Finley in 2000, was buoyed with a triple contract boost from major national firm BAM Construction towards the back end of the year.

Finley Structures will fabricate and erect 380 tonnes for the Advanced Wellbeing and Research Centre (AWRC) for Sheffield Hallam University.

Also at Sheffield Hallam, Finley Structures will construct 130 tonnes of steel for the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE) which is already at the centre of an expanding network of business, industry groups, academics and engineers working to solve specific business challenges within the food and drink sector.

And the Aycliffe construction specialists will fabricate and erect 820 tonnes of steel for a new five-storey building for BAM Construction at New College Bradford, which is due to start in December and be fully completed by September 2019.

Finley Structures has been buoyed with a triple contract boost from major national firm BAM Construction.

The family-run business, which became a category A supplier to BAM two years ago, has bagged a hat-trick of contracts totalling more than 1,300 tonnes of steel.

Finley Structures will fabricate and erect 380 tonnes for the Advanced Wellbeing and Research Centre (AWRC) for Sheffield Hallam University.

AWRC will act as the research hub for the National Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine in Sheffield, a 2012 Olympic Legacy project which co-locates clinical services and physical activity facilities to help people with a medical need to exercise more easily.

Also at Sheffield Hallam, Finley Structures will construct 130 tonnes of steel for the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE) which is already at the centre of an expanding network of business, industry groups, academics and engineers working to solve specific business challenges within the food and drink sector.

And the Aycliffe construction specialists will fabricate and erect 820 tonnes of steel for a new five-storey building for BAM Construction at New College Bradford, which is due to start in December and be fully completed by September 2019.

Finley’s estimating manager Andrew Workman, who earlier this year said the company was hoping to tap into a “buoyant” education sector within the construction industry said: “The three contract wins really underpin our close working relationship with BAM Construction.

“We’ve worked on several projects with them in various areas of the country over the years and we’re delighted to be working with them again.

“We’ve also won a significant number of other contracts in recent months which has really bolstered our order book and puts us in great shape as we approach the winter months.”

Insert BAM quote here if possible…???

Finley Structures has previously worked on several contracts with BAM Construction, including projects at the University of Lincoln, Bannerdale School in Sheffield, Doncaster Sixth Form College and Hull Venue.

BAM Construction, which is based in Hertfordshire but has locations across the UK, is part of the Dutch-owned Royal BAM Group.

Finley Structures became one of only 300 category A suppliers from BAM’s 14,000-strong database of contractors two years ago.

Middlesbrough mayor Dave Budd signed his name into a landmark project which signifies the start of its steel production.

The town’s elected mayor visited Finley Structures in Newton Aycliffe after the family-run construction firm won a contract to fabricate and erect the steel for the new Centre Square development in Middlesbrough.

The 210,000 sq ft scheme, which is being delivered by Ashall Projects, will create a 21st century business destination in the heart of Middlesbrough with Grade A offices.

Preparatory works began on the site earlier this month and main contractor Bowmer and Kirkland awarded Finley Structures the steel contract.

The Aycliffe firm – which built the steel frame for Hitachi Rail Europe’s new facility in Aycliffe as well as factories for Nissan and Unipress in Washington and Nifco in Eaglescliffe – started fabricating 685 tonnes of steel this week, which will make up two structures (one 465 tonnes and the other 220 tonnes).

Finley Structures are expected to start erecting the steel from August 30 and are scheduled to finish in October – the whole Centre Square development is expected to take 14 months to complete.

Mayor Budd today signed and dated a large panel of its structure, which will be welded into the steel, and he said: “It’s not something I’ve done before!

“But it emphasises how important the new developments on Centre Square are, to Middlesbrough and the wider area, and it’s great having a local company do this as well.

“When I look outside my window every day I can see holes being dug in the ground, and very shortly the steel from here at Finley Structures will be going up, and at that point people will really start to think about what this will mean to the whole of Middlesbrough.

“It’s enormous because of the number of jobs it potentially brings with it, and that’s really what our Investment Prospectus is about.

“A lot of the projects are actually happening now and that tells a different sort of story, and maybe it raises ambitions that we can do these things.

“There’s a lot more optimism about and actual physical structures like this really emphasise that.”

Finley Structures, founded in 2000, is well-known for working on high-profile projects in the North-East – other notable projects have included Teesside University’s Curve building and Middlesbrough Council’s Sports Village – but the firm also works across the UK.

The company’s founder and managing director, John Finley, said: “It’s good to win local jobs, it keeps people employed and we use as many suppliers and contractors from around the North-East to work with us to build the contract.

“We’ve just completed the Gate development at Durham, we’ve won another contract with Unipress up at Washington and we have another couple of contracts coming up with Sir Robert McAlpine.

“So we’re very buoyant at the moment. We’re actually buying some new machinery and the contracts we have go well into January, so our order book is very strong.”

• Above: Middlesbrough mayor Dave Budd and Finley Structures managing director John Finley (right) with Finley estimating manager Andrew Workman and senior production controller Phil Metcalfe.

The boss of a major construction firm has moved to reassure staff and clients it has not been adversely affected by the collapse of Carillion.

Finley Structures has worked closely with the construction division of national contractor Carillion on a number of projects over the years.

The Newton Aycliffe family-run steel firm completed a 550-tonne structure at the former Vaux site in Sunderland for Carillion in September last year.

In a company newsletter, which is issued to employees as well as customers, Finley’s joint-managing director Julie Raistrick writes: “The current climate of our industry has been brought to the fore recently with the high-profile news surrounding Carillion.

“We have worked on numerous contracts with the construction arm of Carillion over the years, so we know them very well, and it goes without saying it has been incredibly sad and disheartening to see what has happened.

“But we’d like to reassure our staff and clients that we’ve been lucky enough not to have been adversely affected by it.

“The predicament does, however, reiterate how difficult and competitive our industry is and how tight our margins are.

“Fortunately, we’ve had a lot of orders come through and we have a lot of work going into the New Year. We’re also winning work with a number of main contractors for the first time, including Marshalls and Henry Boot, which is really pleasing.”

Raistrick goes on to admit in the Finley newsletter that 2017-18 has been a challenging time.

“We’ve been buoyed by a lot of positive contract wins in recent months after what has been a tough year in the construction industry,” she says.

“Steel increases have been sporadic, which has been difficult to know how to forecast correctly and cost up projects, and we’ve had to reduce margins.

“As always, everyone is fighting for the same work, and we’ve had to be fiercely competitive.”

Finley Structures has recently been working on the Ongo Building in Scunthorpe for Britcon and an oil and gas facility for Pipeline Solutions in Cramlington for Bowmer & Kirkland.

And more recently the firm won a large contract from McLaughlin & Harvey to work on an 880-tonne project at GlaxoSmithKline in Barnard Castle.

Raistrick adds: “So despite 2017 being a testing year for all businesses in our sector, we remain extremely optimistic that it will be a strong year for us after weathering the mini storm.”