The team behind the construction of the UK’s biggest electric car battery factory have begun their search for a contractor to build a £60m ring road around the site.
Work on the facility, which is being built at Puriton near Bridgwater in Somerset by the owners of Jaguar Land Rover, is expected to take two years to complete.
Agratas, which is part of the Tata Group and will operate the site, is now seeking to improve access to the sprawling plant.
The firm published a Prior information Notice (PIN) this week about an opportunity to construct The Gravity Ring Road at the site.
The PIN says: “This will include construction of roundabouts to provide access, culverts and foundations, surface water drainage systems inclusive of a master rhyne, street furniture, signage, lighting and landscaping.
“The ground works will consist of preloading and band drains to achieve early settlement.”
There are plans for a market engagement day to discuss plans later this month, as per Construction Enquirer.
Building company Sir Robert McAlpine is leader construction company building factory’s first phase, as per BBC News.
A clip posted on social media by Agratas shows the major transformations that have already taken place at the brownfield site.
Construction firm Kelston Sparkes, which specialises in earthworks, has been on the site for almost a year under a ground and earthworks deal, as per Construction Enquirer.
Joe Hibbert, Agratas’ Vice President for Capital Projects previously said: “It’s a huge construction project. One of the biggest of its kind in the country.
“To give a sense of scale, you could lay the Shard, the UK’s tallest building, down twice end to end inside the site,” he added as per BBC News.
The site had been a Royal Ordnance Factory from World War 2 until being decomissioned in 2008, as per the outlet.
Agratas says by the early 2030s the site could contribute almost half of the projected battery manufacturing capacity required for the UK’s automotive sector.
