Heathrow looks to stimulate offsite construction
Heathrow Airport is to use a £16 billion expansion to push the growth of off-site construction in the UK. In a first for a major infra-structure project, Heathrow invites communities across Britain to showcase why their areas should host one of four new offsite logistics hubs. They are key to Heathrow’s plans to build as much offsite as possible, making the project more affordable and environmentally sustainable, while driving growth across Britain.
Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye announced that the airport would be making a major push to support more off-site construction in the UK as it begins to deliver its expansion plans for Britain.
Speaking to council leaders and representatives from the construction industry, Heathrow kicked off the hunt for four UK sites to host the new off-site logistics hubs which will help deliver its expansion programme and drive growth across Britain.
These logistics hubs will pre-assemble components of the expanded airport before transporting them in consolidated loads to Heathrow. By not building everything on-site at one of the world’s busiest airports, the logistics hub will play a key role in supporting the project’s efficient delivery, make the project more affordable and reduce emissions by transporting assembled components to site in fewer lorries. The new logistics hubs will also spread the jobs created from the project across more communities in every corner of the UK.
Mr Holland-Kaye said: ‘The global construction industry is set to be worth £15 trillion by 2025; that’s a huge prize that Britain deserves a bigger share of and Heathrow can help.
‘We want to use Heathrow expansion to not only upgrade Britain’s infrastructure, but cultivate a new world-leading sector and drive growth across the whole country. Boosting off-site construction will help make expansion more affordable and environmentally friendly and give Britain a lasting legacy of expertise that it can sell around the world – helping Britain lead the pack in global construction.’
