By Seamus McDonnell

seamus.mcdonnell@nqnw.co.uk

A BOLTON firm has been at the centre of one of the country’s largest construction projects, the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Severfield, based in Lostock, provided important steelwork for the structure, which is set to replace the club’s previous home, White Hart Lane, on the same site as the historic ground.

The company, which took control of Bolton’s Watson Steel Structures in 2001, has been involved in several high-profile schemes, including the Olympic Stadium - now called the London Stadium and used by West Ham.

In its latest major project, the firm has provided a pair of steel ‘trees’ from its Lostock facility, which weigh 275 tonnes each and support the rear of the stadium’s new South Stand.

Describing the project, which is thought to cost more than £1 billion, the company has explained that the roof of the new stadium is made of more than 50 steel girders, measuring over 20 metres long and weighing between 25-30 tonnes each.

Severfield said: “This was fabricated and trial-assembled at our Lostock facility, helping us achieve an accuracy in length of less than 1mm. Once constructed on site, this produced a ring with an overall length deviation of 0.001 percent over a 693-metre total length.

“The roof lift itself required an incredibly complex synchronized strand jacking operation, involving 216 strand jacks, making it one of the biggest synchronized strand jacking operations ever undertaken in the UK for a single lift.

“Severfield also supplied the steel trays for the pioneering world-first dividing retractable pitch, enabling the new stadium to be used as a highly flexible sports and entertainment venue.”

Work on the 62,000-capacity ground, has helped the firm to increase its profits, with bosses registering an increase in revenue of 5 percent in March 2018 from £262 million up to £274 million.

In explanation of the increase revenues, a financial report from the firm said: “Revenue is up 5 per cent over the prior year predominantly reflecting an increase in order flow and production activity, together with an increase in steel prices.

“During the year, we have continued to work on four large projects in London, each of which has project revenues in excess of £20m.

“These include three projects where work is ongoing and will continue into the next financial year, namely the new stadium for Tottenham Hotspur FC, the retractable roof for Wimbledon No. 1 Court and a new commercial office tower at 22 Bishopsgate. The fourth large project worked on during the year, which is now substantially complete, is for a major new commercial head office building in London.”

Tottenham had originally planned to hold a game against Liverpool on September 15 at the new ground but safety testing showed “issues with critical safety systems”, meaning the team will be playing at Wembley until at least mid-October.

This also affected the American football league, the NFL, which had agreed to hold a game at the update Tottenham Hotspur Stadium once work was completed. Chairman Daniel Levy, said: “We know this will be disappointing for all our fans worldwide. At the start of the project we asked for your support during what we knew would be a complex build and now we ask for your continued patience.”