CONSTRUCTION of one of the UK's largest news distribution centres is being hailed as another feather in the cap for a structural design consultancy.

AMP Consultants, of Darlington, provided structural steelwork designs and connection specifications for the 37,500sq ft WH Smith news centre, on Tyneside.

The centre, which accomodates more than 200 staff, is nearing completion at Queen's Park, in Gateshead's Team Valley Trading Estate.

Once operational, it will be capable of handling more than 1.4 million newspapers and one million magazines, serving 1,500 customers in the North-East.

AMP Engineering director David Hodgson said: "The superstructure has been designed to support wide spans of curtain-walling and to allow loading bays to work simultaneously on three sides.

"The design also includes steelwork canopies over the entire loading area to give weather protection to products and personnel during loading operations."

The news centre is the latest in a long line of flagship developments in the region AMP has worked on, having provided steelwork designs for the Leeds City Stadium, the Naburn Designer Outlet Village, near York, the Glass-houghton retail development, in Wakefield, and a 13-storey office block in Leeds city centre.

The consultancy also provided the design of steelwork, calculations and fabrication drawings for three-storey offices at DFS Furniture's distribution operations near Doncaster, which opened in February.