Caunton’s progress with erecting the steelwork for the new Friars Walk Shopping Centre in the city of Newport, heralded in Caunton Website News on 7th May 2014, is well on its way now. Friars Walk will offer over 390,000 sq. ft. (36,230 square metres) of retail and leisure space which includes a “full offer” department store, a multiplex cinema, a wide range of shops and restaurants, all supported by a new modern car park and bus station. Caunton have completed erecting the steelwork for the cinema structure, the 8 screen Cineworld complex (Zone C) and for the full offer dept. store Debenhams (Zone A). This constitutes roughly two thirds of the development in steelwork terms and Caunton are now working on the retail space (Zone B & D)which in effect links the cinema and the dept. store. Over 4000te have been delivered and erected, with the remaining two thousand one hundred tonnes now under construction.

The steelwork in certain areas is extremely complicated and substantial. For example the two photographs show a massive column, weighing 28.9te, for Zone B - first in the Works and then on site - which was successfully fabricated at Caunton's requiring deep penetration fillet welds connecting chunky 70mm thick flanges to a similarly chunky 50mm thick web. Another example of substance is a plate girder weighing in at over 6t when fabricated - the flange is 100mm thick and the web is 50mm thick. This has of course proved, and proves, Caunton’s CE-marked plating and welding capability and capacity.

Construction work is well underway and the new centre whose overall cost will be £61.4m will open Autumn 2015 and in time for Christmas.