Hull looks set to play a part in the delivery of HS2 with a £10 million investment planned.
European steel giant Voestalpine has identified a former container terminal site in the city as ideal for a new logistics facility, having won a major contract on the high-profile build. The Austrian business’s Voestalpine Railway Systems subsidiary will supply points and crossings for the first two phases of the project.
A total of 20 jobs could be created at the rail-linked Freightliner Road location, with an application lodged with Hull City Council for a 50m by 20m warehouse, a two storey modular office building and welfare unit.
Read more: Major HS2 contracts won by East Yorkshire off-site construction specialist
The submission also looks for a change of use to the land for open storage, with two rail sidings reinstated at the facility last used in 1987.
Voestalpine, listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, was last month named as the company to design, manufacture and deliver around 180 switches and crossings, for use between London and Crewe, with a time frame stretching into the early 2030s. Components up to 70m in length could be handled at a location that first saw rail activity in the mid-19th century.
It will despatch from Hull to four project construction hubs, having received the manufactured parts from Germany, with the proposal to be a secure custom-cleared site.
A spokesperson for the company told Business Live: “Due to the size of the components a new rail connection site is required to stage deliveries to HS2. A logistics hub in Hessle will receive the components to assemble high speed switches and crossings via rail from Europe, reducing carbon footprint and road congestion. The logistics site will employ 20 employees responsible for receiving and supplying the assemblies to HS2 building sites by rail.
"The planning application has been submitted and we await a response from the Hull City Council. The investment to make the site suitable for the long high speed rail components will reach £10 million, which includes - among others - enhanced rail connectivity, railway sidings, cranes, border control measures, security, warehouse and office."
Engineering, servicing and assembly provision will see a further 50 jobs created under its Turnout Technology UK division, when supply begins. It already supplies system solutions to Network Rail, Translink, Transport for London, SPT Glasgow, and other light railway systems operators in the UK and in the Republic of Ireland.
The company has a track layout assembly site at Harworth, near Doncaster, and a machining workshop in Edinburgh. The South Yorkshire facility is not rail-connected, however.
In the planning submission, an “exhaustive search for suitable site over the last three years” from southern Scotland to Kent is documented, with a large number evaluated.
Hull won through due to continuity of rail use and ease of re-establishing it, existing hard standing and a well-developed road access. Rail routes required are also feasible, with owner, Network Rail, willing to grant a long lease to the £13 billion turnover firm that has more than 50,000 global employees.
Close to the A63 and bordered by the existing mainline railway and a freight siding to the neighbouring Tarmac facility, the proposal would see the buildings to the north of the site.
East Yorkshire off-sire construction specialist Premier Modular is already supporting the first phase of HS2 with staff welfare facilities.
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