A CIVIL engineer has completed near £1m work to help transform the former Swan Hunter shipyard.

Owen Pugh Civil Engineering has installed an access road, drainage and retaining walls at the Wallsend site.

The contract was part of wider plans to turn the famous yard, on the banks of the River Tyne, into a 1,000-job hub for subsea and offshore energy manufacturing companies.

The business, which operates within the Owen Pugh Group, secured the contract from Kier Group, which is working with North Tyneside Council to create the Swans Enterprise Zone.

Alongside work to lay the road and drainage, bosses say staff demolished workshops and buildings and cleared areas for potential redevelopment.

Lee Buchanan, Owen Pugh Civil Engineering operations manager, said: “We are delighted to breathe new life into the Swan Hunter site.

“The road, along with demolition work, will help open up new plots for businesses.”

Neil Hosie, contracts manager at Kier Construction, which subcontracted the work to Owen Pugh, added: “The road will be vital to the site’s regeneration.”

Headquartered in Dudley, near Cramlington, Northumberland, the Owen Pugh Group employs more than 400 people, with its civil engineering division covering work across drainage, bulk earthworks and demolition.

Its sister services arm is made up of an aggregate operation, based at Marsden Quarry, South Tyneside, the Middlesbrough-based Owen Pugh Drain Services, and Opal Testing Services, which provides soil testing and site investigation.