A North-East company behind the Tees Barrage white water centre has won a £5m contract to inspire future generations of Olympic athletes.

Patrick Parsons Consulting Engineers is about to start work on the Lee Valley site where Team GB enjoyed one its golden moments.

In August, Etienne Stott and Tim Baillie's stunning performance on the course saw them confirmed as Britain's first ever canoe-slalom Olympic gold medallists, with team-mates David Florence and Richard Hounslow bagging silver.

The motto of the London Games was to "Inspire a Generation" and

the organisers are determined to ensure the venues that produced a summer of golden memories don't become expensive white elephants.

Newcastle-based Patrick Parsons has been asked to provide full engineering services for the construction of two classrooms - one indoor for bad weather and one outdoor so students and teachers can make full use of the course. To encourage members of the public to experience the thrills of white water rafting, canoeing and kayaking the parking areas will be extended and landscaping done to cater for an anticipated 10,000 visitors each weekend.

The project will also see the creation of a new centre for athletes, with state-of-the art training areas, gym equipment and offices for coaches and physiotherapists.

The aim is to ensure that the course continues to be a centre for world-class sport, nurturing Olympic athletes of the future.

It is the latest project won by the 48-year-old company which recently completed work on a white water course in Russia and is bidding for similar contracts in the Middle East and for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Peter Stienlet, the managing director of Patrick Parsons, said: "There's certainly an element of prestige for us in having been selected to deliver this project. It's a privilege to be involved in creating a legacy for the local community at the Lee Valley Olympic course. The upgrades to the facilities will also secure the course's future as a world-class centre for sporting excellence, an equally important legacy."

Last year, the firm completed work on a £4.6m upgrade of the Tees Barrage course in Stockton. The project included the installation of four giant Archimedes screws, an invention dating back more than 1,200 years, to generate the flow of the water around the course.