Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company

Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company was a UK bridge works and structural steel contractor based in Darlington.[1] It built landmarks including the Victoria Falls Bridge in Zimbabwe; the Tees Transporter Bridge; the Forth Road and Humber suspension bridges in the UK; Hong Kong's Tsing Ma Bridge, and London's Wembley Stadium Arch.[3][4]

Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company
IndustryConstruction
Founded1877[1]
DefunctSeptember 2021 (September 2021)[2]
HeadquartersDarlington
Products

Cleveland Bridge's Dubai business fabricated and erected steel structures for the Burj Al Arab and Emirates Towers.[3]

Victoria Falls Bridge

The Darlington company went into administration in July 2021, owing £21m, and closed in September 2021.[2]

History

Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company was founded in 1877 with a capital of £10,000. The assets were sold to Charles Frederick Dixon in 1885. He registered his company on a Stock Exchange in 1893 and by 1913 there were 600 staff.[5]

In 1967, the company was acquired by The Cementation Company.[6]

Trafalgar House bought Cementation in 1970 and went on to acquire Redpath Dorman Long from Dorman Long Group in 1982. It merged the two subsidiaries in 1990 as Cleveland Structural Engineering. That business was renamed Kvaerner Cleveland Bridge following acquisition of Trafalgar House by Kværner in 1996.[1]

In 2000, the company, once again, became independent through an £8.3million ($12.3million) management buyout. Management also acquired the company's Dubai subsidiary that had been established in 1978. Saudi Arabia's Al Rushaid Group provided finance to the firm which rose to an 88.5% stake by September 2002.[7][8] [3][1]

Decline and fall

In July 2021, Cleveland Bridge sought further funding from Al Rushaid Group and warned 220 staff of potential redundancies. The firm was reported to be on the brink of administration after contract delays.[9][10]

Al Rushaid Group did not provide the resources; administrator FRP was appointed, and the business was put up for sale.[11][12] Fifty three workers were made redundant.[13] Around 25 staff continued to assist FRP, and 128 staff were furloughed under the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme pending restart of production.[14]

FRP was unable to find a buyer for the business and on 10 September announced it would close with the loss of a further 133 jobs.[2] They stated £12m would be required to fund the business to the end of 2021.[2] The company assets were sold off in November 2021.[15]

Controversies

2016 death and HSE fine

In 2022 Cleveland Bridge & Engineering was fined £1.5 million by the Health and Safety Executive, with a further cost judgement of £29,000 against them. An inadequately secured crane access panel gave way in a 2016 fatal fall. The fine related to four breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 leading to the death. FRP Advisory stated it was unlikely the fine or costs could be paid.[16]

Shard delays

In 2013 Cleveland Bridge was ordered to pay Severfield-Rowen plc £824,478 compensation for delays to their subcontract work on The Shard. The judge accepted there was a very high incidence of poor workmanship in the steelwork Cleveland Bridge delivered. Cleveland Bridge's own internal correspondence highlighted an extraordinary work overload in 2010, and Judge Akenhead concluded it had taken on more work than it had capacity.[17]

Wembley Stadium

In 2002 the company won a £60 million steelwork contract for the bowl of New Wembley Stadium.[7] Part way through construction, relationships between main contractor Multiplex and Cleveland Bridge broke down. Multiplex stripped Cleveland Bridge of their erection role, handing it to roof steelwork contractor, Hollandia. Two hundred of Cleveland Bridge's on site erection staff and subcontractors transferred to Hollandia. They subsequently went on strike and were sacked. The situation escalated when Cleveland Bridge unilaterally repudiated its remaining stadium fabrication contract.[18][19][20][21]

Both sides blamed the other for extra costs; delays; poor workmanship; missing or incorrect steelwork; damaged, missing or incorrect paintwork, and the chaotic state of records and the near site stock yards. Extensive litigation ensued and Cleveland Bridge was ultimately ordered to pay Multiplex £6,154,246.79 in respect of net earlier overpayments; breach of contract, and interest. Cleveland Bridge was also ordered to pay 20% of Multiplex's legal costs.[22][19]

It was claimed, in evidence, that some Wembley steelwork had been fabricated in China for Cleveland Bridge and that it had ended up being diverted to the Beijing National Stadium.[19]

Mr Justice Jackson's 2008 judgement in the Technology and Construction Court was highly critical of both parties unwillingness to settle earlier in such an expensive case where the core evidence extended to over 500 lever arch files, and photocopying costs alone were £1 million. He highlighted the large number of items at dispute where the sums involved were substantially exceeded by the legal costs involved in resolving them.[19]

Notable bridges
BridgeLocationYearTotal lengthImageRef
ftm
Ramsey Harbour Swing Bridge Isle of Man 1892 420 130
[23]
Victoria Falls Bridge Zim­babwe 1905 650 200
[24]
Waibadu / Garden Bridge Shanghai 1906 344 105
[4]
King Edward VII Bridge New­castle 1906 1,151 351
[25]
Blue Nile Road and Railway Bridge Sudan 1909 1,837 560 [26]
Victoria Bridge Hamilton 1910 500 150
[27]
Tees Trans­porter Bridge Middle­sbrough 1911 851 259
[28]
Goz Abu Goma Bridge Sudan 1911 1,759 536
[29]
Trent Bridge widening Nott­ingham 1926 300 91
[30]
Chiswick Bridge London 1933 606 185
[31]
Verrugas Bridge Peru 1936 574 175
[32]
Howrah Bridge India 1942 2,313 705
[33]
Spit Bridge Sydney 1958 745 227
[34]
Auckland Harbour Bridge Auckland 1959 3,350 1,020
[35]
Tamar Bridge Saltash – Plymouth 1959 1,099 335
[36]
Forth Road Bridge
(ACD)		 Scotland 1964 8,241 2,512
[37]
Severn Bridge
(ABB)		 UK 1966 5,249 1,600
[38]
Wye Bridge UK 1968 1,340 410
[38]
Bos­phorus Bridge Turkey 1973 1,560 480
[39]
Rio–Niterói Bridge Brazil 1974 43,602 13,290
[40]
Balla­chulish Bridge Scotland 1974 964 294
[41]
Humber Bridge Hessle 1981 7,300 2,200
[42]
Kessock Bridge Inver­ness 1982 3,465 1,056
[43]
Queen Elizabeth II Bridge London 1991 9,423 2,872
[44]
Tsing Ma Bridge Hong Kong 1997 4,518 1,377
[45]
Jiangyin Yangtze River Bridge Jiangsu 1999 4,544 1,385
[46]
New Carquinez Bridge San Fran­cisco 2003 3,465 1,056
[47]
Rio–Antirrio Bridge Gulf of Corinth 2004 9,450 2,880
[48]
Wembley Stadium Arch London 2005 1,033 315
[49]
Infinity Bridge Stockton on Tees 2009 787 240
[50]
Twin Sails Bridge Poole 2012 456 139
[51]

See also

References
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  3. "CBEME Profile" (PDF). Cleveland Bridge CBEME. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
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  7. Buying into Success - Al Rushaid Investment Group Increases Stake in Cleveland Bridge Group, clevelandbridge.com, September 2002, archived from the original on 21 November 2003
  8. Cleveland Group Receives Substantial Investment from Al Rushaid, clevelandbridge.com, 21 September 2000, archived from the original on 27 September 2001
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  48. "Rion-Antirion Bridge". Structurae. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  49. McAteer, Owen (30 September 2008). "Both sides claim victory as judge rules on Wembley row". The Northern Echo. Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  50. "Cleveland Bridge: The British bridges built by innovation". Scottish Construction Now. 16 April 2021. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
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