SGW success with tenders keeps rising.

Byline: By Ron Taylor

Sgw Construction (Redcar) Ltd's run of tender success continues unabated.

Owned by the Williams family, with former Sunderland builder Brian Hutchinson as their linchpin chief estimator, the Middlesbrough business recently moved into new offices it built on the Teesside town's Skippers Lane Industrial Estate.

Having opened the year with pounds 3m worth of new orders, March saw a further pounds 2.5m added to a burgeoning workload.

And if that isn't enough for managing director Simon Williams to think about, he has set up a separate small works division within his growing company too.

Heading the latest string of winning major works bids is the proposed pounds 1.5m phased improvement of Salvation Army Housing Association's residential centre at High Street East, Sunderland.

Burns Architects of Castle Eden has designed the scheme with specialist input by structural engineers WSP North and TGA Consulting Engineers for mechanical and electrical services.

The 52-week project commencing mid May is expected to involve SGW staff in remodelling existing bedsit accommodation to create 54 bedsit units each with en-suite shower and WC.

In addition, lift installations and communal areas on three floors will be refurbished and upgraded.

Fourteen flats and a bungalow are to be formed in a mixed conversion/new build scheme at Coatham Road, Redcar, in a pounds 750,000 contract between SGW Construction and Three Rivers Charitable Housing Association. Durham City architects Brian and Madeleine Ashdown act for the employer with Chester-le-Street quantity surveyors Lumsdon & Wood providing cost consultancy throughout the seven-month project.

And closing SGW's latest winning run is a pounds 300,000 order from Hartlepool Borough Council for a new Sure Start children's day centre.

Local professionals Derek Stephens and Harry Jones take the consultant architectural and surveying roles respectively.

P Whelan Ltd is quietly collecting its contract share, too.

Often looked upon as only a sport for the retired, indoor green bowling is attracting the young, more agile among us, a fact recognised by Newcastle City Council at West Denton.

Here a brand new pounds 1.2m steel-framed facility is about to be built by Whelan following a successful two-stage bid to the authority on behalf of the local community.

Steelwork is already being erected following Whelan's March start on the construction of four industrial units at Newbiggin Lane in the Westerhope area of the city, a scheme designed for developer City & Northern by Forest Hall architect Ian Belsham.

Angus Leybourne & Co prepared the plans for Ravensworth Golf Club's new pounds 500,000 clubhouse which Whelan began building earlier this month.

Also firmly on the contractor's books is a Jennings Ford order to extend the workshop at the dealership's Washington workshop.

* Ron Taylor covers construction for The Journal. Fax him on: [phone] or e-mail: ronaldtaylor1@onetel. net.uk