East Anglia ONE has put Norwich and East Norfolk in a leading position among districts across the UK in 2016, with more than GBP 2.7 billion worth of construction contracts, helped greatly by the year’s largest contract award, the GBP 1.8 billion East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm.
The ‘Regional Construction Hotspots in Great Britain 2017’ report, issued by industry analysts Barbour ABI and the Construction Products Association, highlights the levels of construction contract values awarded in 2016 across all regions of Great Britain, with the majority of the work taking place in 2017 onwards.
Commenting on the figures, Michael Dall , Lead Economist at Barbour ABI, said: “The Government is focused on raising the levels of major infrastructure projects, in particular public sector schemes such as offshore wind farms, energy plants and motorway upgrades have considerably boosted construction value in more rural regions. Districts such as the Isle of Anglesey and Norwich and East Norfolk have experienced year-on-year construction contract value growth of 916 per cent and 744 per cent respectively.”
East Anglia ONE is being built approximately 42 kilometres off the coast of East Anglia. The electricity generated from the offshore wind farm will be brought onshore at Bawdsey, Suffolk, by cables which will then be laid underground 37km to Bramford, where a substation is being constructed adjacent to the National Grid substation.
The GBP 2.5 billion offshore wind farm, consisting of 102 Siemens 7MW wind turbines, is scheduled for full commissioning by the end of 2018.