A force to be reckoned with.

Byline: By Ron Taylor

Sgw Construction never fails to come up trumps on Teesside.

With its base at Stanley House on Middlesbrough's Skippers Lane Industrial Estate, you would expect the Simon Williams-led firm to secure its share of orders around the Tees - and it doesn't disappoint.

Starting 2003 with a wad of new business worth pounds 5m-plus and through keen but sensible tendering, SGW has cemented its position as a construction force to be reckoned with.

This is not only in the company's own backyard but as a regional competitor too.

Its early autumn successes may not amount to big money - though pounds 1.25m is not to be sniffed at - but they contribute to what may be the contractor's best year to date.

The company is one month into a pounds 585,000 contract with Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council erecting a Sure Start nursery with playground at Coatham.

Main consultancy is by Linthorpe architects DKS with Guisborough's Phil Readman inputting quantities.

The cleaning and pointing of Middlesbrough's Grade I listed Middlehaven Clock Tower has started, as has the pounds 242,000 part conversion of South Shields Police Station.

The end of this month sees the start of pounds 280,000 worth of SGW extensions to Wells Villa at St Luke's Hospital in the town's Marton Road.

Harrogate practice Richard Eves & Associates, acting for Tees & NE Yorkshire NHS Trust, is to create additional bed spaces at St Luke's. Project architect Nigel Rawlinson has design responsibility during the 17-week contract period.

And Hartlepool-based design and build specialist Kingfield Developments is awash with work, according to its managing director owner Mike Dickinson.

"It's perplexing," he said. "Tender prices on Teesside are still competitive yet we cannot service the demand. We've been going full pelt for the last 10 to 12 months."

On September 29, Kingfield began a 30-week linear accelerator project at James Cook University Hospital's radiotherapy department.

The contract with South Tees Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is worth almost pounds 1m and sees the construction of MRI bunkers with 600mm thick floors and 1200mm thick walls.

Graham Young from P+HS of Stokesley is project architect.

Elsewhere in Middlesbrough, Walter Thompson of Northallerton is carrying out pounds 2m worth of alterations to Ormesby School on Stockwith Close.

Darlington's Wharton Construction is in the process of the pounds 1m, fourth and final phase of refurbishment to Teesside University's Victoria Building.

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council has PBS Construction (NE) of Grangetown in contract at High Clarence Primary School and Dinsdale Construction extending both Crooksbarn and Harrow Gate Primary Schools with Government space-for-sport-and-arts funding.

In a bigger league, Japanese contractor Kajima has bagged its sixth PFI deal by its selection as Darlington Borough Council's preferred bidder on a pounds 25m project.

Starting next February, three schools - Beaumont Hill, Houghton Secondary and Springfield Primary - will come together on one site as part of a rationalisation of the town's education resources.

* Ron Taylor covers construction for The Journal. Fax details of recent contract awards or new projects envisaged to [phone] or email: [e-mail]