A CONSTRUCTION firm says it has built Europe’s largest reinforced earth wall in the North-East.

Esh Group says its civil engineering division, Lumsden and Carroll, has erected the £2.7m wall, which spans 200 metres.

Bosses say the wall forms part of Newcastle City Council’s Fisher Street regeneration project, which has created a new development area.

The company was helped by digger maker, Komatsu UK, which has a factory in Birtley, near Chester-le-Street.

Bosses say the business provided an excavator complete with next generation technology, which used satellite navigation to identify its position and bucket movements to cut production time and the need for secondary checks.

Steve Conn, Lumsden and Carroll construction director, said: “We have been able to meet the client’s objectives within budget and timescales, which is a credit to the whole team, and by using the Komatsu system, we saved 313 hours of digging time.”

Lumsden and Carroll is part of Esh Group, which has its head office in Bowburn, near Durham City.

Earlier this month, the company revealed annual turnover for 2015 was £275m, with pre-tax profits at £8.6m, in what officials described as a year of consolidation.

The results came after a preceding 12 months that saw Esh buy Border Construction to expand into Cumbria and Scotland.

Esh hopes to build a new stadium for the Newcastle Eagles basketball team, which the business sponsors, with plans submitted to build a 2,800 capacity seater venue in the city.

In April, The Northern Echo exclusively revealed Komatsu, which employs about 400 people at Birtley, was chosen to build a new hybrid model for European markets.