Palmers Thyssen Krupp wins £20m Tay Bridge contract

Palmers ThyssenKrupp has won a £20m contract to help accelerate the refurbishment of the Tay Bridge in Scotland.

The deal, announced by Network Rail's director Scotland Rob McAulay at the Scottish Transport Conference in Edinburgh this morning, will lead to the creation of 75 jobs.

McAulay said: "The Tay Bridge has seen ongoing works to restore it to its original glory, however, this latest contract will allow us to significantly increase the pace of the refurbishment. We will be increasing the number of men employed on the bridge from 25 to approximately 100.

“The contract will see 70,000m2 of wrought iron, cast iron and steel stripped back to the bare metal and a new weather resistant glass epoxy based paint applied to preserve the bridge for future generations.

“The current contract will run to 2012, however, we don’t expect the entire project to be completed until 2016."

The current contracts will take the total investment in the refurbishment of the Tay Bridge in the last ten years to £53m.