A multi-million pound contract to construct a new 300m permanent mast at Bilsdale has been awarded to a local steel constructor.
Arqiva, the infrastructure firm responsible for the former Bilsdale mast that went up in flames in August of 2021, signed the contract with Thirsk-based steel constructor, Severfield plc, last week.
The constructor will be responsible for the building of the new permanent structure, which has a project value in excess of £30m and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Arqiva chief executive Paul Donovan said the firm was striving to cut the time in half of what would normally be expected to replace such a towering structure on one of the country’s most environmentally sensitive sites at Bilsdale on the North York Moors.
Severfields, one of the UK’s leading structural steel experts, is based at Dalton Airfield Industrial Estate near Thirsk and has worked on major projects such as the Olympic Stadium and The London Shard.
Mr Donovan said: “That I’m sure will be of great interest to everybody. It’s been a source of frustration for us that it has taken so long, but we had to have due process around something as significant as this.”
The coming months will see the steel fabricated by Severfield, before going away to galvanised and being turned into flat pack-style units and taken to Bilsdale for it to be reassembled in a modular way.
Mr Donovan said: “I’m very satisfied with the progress we are making on what will ultimately be one of Britain’s top ten tallest structures at 314m-high, weighing 200 tonnes with lots of very complex electronics and other equipment which needs to be installed upon it.
“At the moment it is on track, but as with all things it is weather dependent, as you can only work at height when the wind is below a certain velocity, so we’re hoping for a good summer.
“Everybody has really pulled the stops out to ensure their normal delivery timeframes get shrunk without any compromise to quality. We all realise the importance to people of getting this project finished so we can have service fully restored to what it was before.”
“The previous mast was a cylindrical structure, but the new mast will be a lattice-based structure which actually has some benefits in its ability to tolerate wind, but also if there were any fire on a lattice-based structure it is potentially less vulnerable to the kind of catastrophic outcomes we saw before."
The signing of the official contract was made at the site of Severfield plc, with MP for Thirsk and Malton, Kevin Hollinrake, in attendance.
Mr Hollinrake said while the loss of the original mast had proved difficult for many people, and in particular vulnerable people, he was satisfied with Arqiva’s progress after overcoming initial delays.
He said he was delighted the contract had been awarded to Severfield, helping secure jobs at the Dalton Airfield site where about 400 people are employed.
Mr Hollinrake added: “It’s great that we can actually do this sort of stuff in the UK and I’m proud that it’s in my patch. Some people think it’s just big lumps of steel, but actually it’s pretty complex stuff when you put it all together, like a gigantic Mechano set.”
Rob Evans, division managing director for Severfield Commercial and Industrial, said that the company’s involvement in the construction of the Bilsdale mast “will be of great benefit to the local community.”
He stressed that Arqiva were aiming to “cut in half” the time it would normally take to construct a mast of this size.
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