Construction consultants secure multidisciplinary role on key net zero project

Award-winning construction and property consultancy, Summers-Inman, has secured a multidisciplinary role to project manage and provide quantity surveying services on a research and innovation facility which will support the region’s ongoing drive for clean energy and sustainability.

The firm’s appointment follows on from plans unveiled earlier this year by Teesside University and the Tees Valley Mayor and the Tees Valley Combined Authority to develop a new £13.5m industry-led Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre (NZIIC) to support the ongoing drive for clean energy and sustainability.

Appointed by Teesside University following a competitive tender submission via the NEUPC consultants’ framework (North East Universities Purchasing Consortium), this latest appointment sees Summers-Inman returning to steer the Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre (NZIIC) to completion, having begun its work on the project earlier in the year when it successfully managed the project up to RIBA Stage 3.

The next primary task, from RIBA Stage 4 onwards, will be to successfully select and appoint a suitable main contractor to build the scheme and once this is done, Summers-Inman will be responsible from a cost, quality and time perspective when the scheme reaches site.

Commenting on their latest role, Summers-Inman’s associate director, Andrew Rapmund, said: “The Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre is part of the expanding Net Zero Innovation Hub, which Teesside University is spearheading.

“Our intention is to create a Net Zero Carbon and BREEAM Outstanding-rated national facility for technological research, development, demonstration and transfer, aimed at facilitating the transition of the Tees Valley and the UK’s engineering industries to more sustainable, low carbon processes and products.

“This is an incredibly exciting project for us to work on and we are delighted to be working closely with and representing the university’s interests once again on such a major project – one that not  only places the region at the forefront of the clean energy agenda, but also has the potential to act as a catalyst for further massive investment and create thousands of jobs in the process, so it is a highly significant project for the region, too.”

The firm’s multidisciplinary appointment follows the successful completion of past projects at the university including the National Horizons Centre, the Student Life Building and the Cornell Quarter, through which Summers-Inman and the Teesside University estates team have formed a particularly effective working relationship.

Jill Thompson, deputy director (Campus Services), said: “We were pleased to be able to appoint Summers-Inman to act on our behalf as project managers and quantity surveyors.  Their experience, enthusiasm and understanding of our needs shone out at interview stage and we are now managing the tender process to select a main contractor.  We have already appointed Cundall as our BREEAM assessor and Net Zero Consultant, so everything is moving ahead smoothly and to programme.”

Located on the Tees Advanced Manufacturing Park (TeesAMP) in Middlesbrough, the facility will kick-start commercial industrial decarbonisation, hydrogen and circular economy-related business activity in the Tees Valley, provide ‘grow-on’ and demonstration space for green industrial development in the Tees Valley region and provide these businesses with a specialist research, development and innovation support infrastructure, together with a base for co-location of R&D activity – at a specialised ‘Innovation Campus’.

The scheme has already been tendered and an announcement about the appointment of a contractor is expected imminently.   GSS Architecture and civil and structural engineering consultants, BGP, have already been appointed.

The project is due to start on site in November with completion anticipated in late 2022.