Hydrock Group Ltd has been awarded the preliminary ground investigation contract by E.ON AG for the proposed new nuclear power station at Oldbury in Gloucestershire.
Work is due to start on 3 August 2009 and will involve the drilling of some 22 boreholes between 40-meters and 80-meters deep as well as down-hole geophysics and geotechnical testing.
Adam Fisher, Hydrock director said: “Hydrock has been working in the new nuclear build programme for the last 18 months and it forms a major part of our growth strategy.”
“This is a complex and critical piece of work in preparation for the construction of the new facility,” he added.
The contract was awarded following a selection process involving a pre-qualification submission, a tender submission followed by over seven hours of interviews and a visit by the client to one of Hydrock’s current contracts at Eggborough power station in Yorkshire.
In January 2009, E.ON and RWR npower formed a joint venture which plans to build 6GW of new nuclear capacity in the UK. The consortium owns land near the existing Oldbury and Wylfa sites, but has yet to decide on a reactor design.
