Morgan Sindall plc has been appointed to an £8.3 million contract to construct new car storage and handling facilities at the Port of Southampton.

Southampton is the UK’s principle automotive port and has purpose-built facilities dedicated to handling this trade. Port owner Associated British Ports (ABP) has commissioned the construction of the new multi-deck car storage facility to enable the port to handle greater numbers of cars, which are shipped to meet overseas demand. The port currently handles around 820,000 vehicles each year.

The scheme at Southampton’s Eastern Docks will see the Morgan Sindall project team construct a 67,130 sq m six-level car storage facility, capable of handling 3,846 vehicles. Work on the project has commenced and the scheme is due to be delivered by April next year.

Nick Ridehalgh, ABP Port Director, Southampton, said: “The Port of Southampton contributes around £1 billion to the UK economy and supports about 15,000 jobs. Our automotive business plays a significant role in delivering that success and we are committed to investing in world class facilities to support that trade and help it to grow.”

Neil Lord-Hatton, Morgan Sindall’s operations manager, said: “We’re very pleased to have been appointed to this major scheme to construct additional car storage and handling space at the Eastern Docks. Southampton is the UK’s number one vehicle handling port and we’re delighted to be working alongside ABP to deliver this scheme which will have a positive impact on the Port’s ability to handle the huge numbers of vehicles it manages each year.

“The Morgan Sindall team has a good depth of experience working on schemes of this nature and has successfully delivered similar projects for ABP in the past so we’re looking forward to bringing that knowledge to bear on this project.