Alfred McAlpine
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Alfred McAlpine plc was a British construction firm headquartered in
Hooton, Cheshire Hooton is a suburban village on the Wirral Peninsula, within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It was once a separate village but was incorporated into Ellesmere Port as the town e ...
. It was a major road builder, and constructed over 10% of Britain's motorways, including the
M6 Toll The M6 Toll, referred to on signs as the Midland Expressway (originally named the Birmingham Northern Relief Road or BNRR), and stylised as M6toll, connects M6 Junction 3a at the Coleshill Interchange to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton with ...
(as part of the CAMBBA consortium). It was listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
until it was acquired by
Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...
in 2008.


History

Alfred McAlpine Alfred McAlpine plc was a British construction firm headquartered in Hooton, Cheshire. It was a major road builder, and constructed over 10% of Britain's motorways, including the M6 Toll (as part of the CAMBBA consortium). It was listed on the ...
was one of the sons of 'Concrete' Bob McAlpine and he ran the operations of
Sir Robert McAlpine Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a family-owned building and civil engineering company based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It carries out engineering and construction in the infrastructure, heritage, commercial, arena and stadium, healthcare, educa ...
in the north west of England. In 1935, following the death of Sir Robert and his eldest son, Alfred ran the north west independently, although the legal separation was not completed until 1940, when Sir Alfred McAlpine & Son was formed. Under a non-compete agreement with its former parent company, Sir Alfred McAlpine confined itself to civil engineering and to the north west of England. After the death of its founder, his son Jimmie McAlpine became chairman. The company was floated on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
in 1958 under the name Marchwiel Holdings, changing its public name to Alfred McAlpine PLC only in 1985. This followed the decision in 1983 to end the non-compete agreement with Robert McAlpine allowing the firm to expand geographically. McAlpine's status as a civil engineer was enhanced during the 1960s by its participation in the motorway building programme and the company became one of the country's leading civil engineers. There had been some limited diversification, including the purchase of
Penrhyn Quarry The Penrhyn quarry is a slate quarry located near Bethesda, North Wales. At the end of the nineteenth century it was the world's largest slate quarry; the main pit is nearly long and deep, and it was worked by nearly 3,000 quarrymen. It has ...
, the country's largest slate works. As the civil engineering market declined in the 1970s, McAlpine sought to diversify further into private housebuilding. Acquisitions included Price Brothers in 1978, Frank Sanderson's Finlas in 1982 and Canberra in 1988. Investments had also been made in the US housing industry. By the end of the 1980s, private housebuilding was contributing the major part of group profits.Wellings, Fred: ''Dictionary of British Housebuilders'' (2006) Troubador. , In 1985, Jimmie retired, and handed over chairmanship of the company to his son Robert James "Bobby" McAlpine. In 1991 Bobby brought in an outside chief executive, resigning as chairman in 1992, by which time the family no longer owned a controlling shareholding. Under new management, there was further concentration on private housebuilding, including the acquisition of Raine Industries. By the late 1990s, McAlpine was building over 4,000 houses a year and was one of the industry's top ten. However, there was increasing speculation over the future of the company and, in 2001, it sold its housebuilding operations to
George Wimpey George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructi ...
. In 2001, it acquired Kennedy Utility Management for £52m. In 2002, it acquired Stiell, a facilities management and information technology network systems business, for £85m. In February 2008,
Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...
acquired Alfred McAlpine for £572m.


Structure

It had three business streams: *Business Services:
facilities management Facility management or facilities management (FM) is a professional management discipline focused on the efficient and effective delivery of logistics and other support services related to real property and buildings. It encompasses multiple disc ...
, information systems, asset management and health and safety management. *Project Services: the Special Projects unit was involved a broad range of commercial, industrial, leisure, educational and medical facilities and the civil engineering unit was focused primarily on road building. *Infrastructure Services: maintenance, renewal and development services to utility operators in the gas, electricity, water and telecoms sectors and roads maintenance services to local government. It also owned Alfred McAlpine Slate, which was the world's largest producer of natural
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
.


Major projects

Projects undertaken by the company included an engine factory for the
Bristol Aeroplane Company The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable a ...
at
Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...
completed in 1943, the
Royal Liverpool University Hospital The Royal Liverpool University Hospital (RLUH) is a major teaching and research hospital located in the city of Liverpool, England. It is the largest and busiest hospital in Merseyside and Cheshire, and has the largest emergency department of i ...
completed in 1969, the
Scammonden Dam Scammonden or Dean Head was a village close to Huddersfield, in the Dean Head Valley, England, before the valley was flooded to create Scammonden Reservoir in the 1960s. The M62 motorway crosses the dam wall and then passes through a cutting to t ...
completed in 1970,
New Cross Hospital New Cross Hospital is a hospital in the Heath Town district of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is located to the east of the city centre in Wednesfield and is managed by the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. History The hospital has ...
in
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completed in 1970, the
Alvito Dam The Alvito Dam is a large earthfill dam in Portugal. The dam was built by Construções A. Supico between 1973 and 1976. It is in the Alvito Municipality Alvito () is a town and a municipality in Beja District in Portugal. The population in 201 ...
in
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
completed in 1976, Dinorwig Power Station completed in 1984, Manchester Central completed in 1986,
Devonshire Dock Hall Devonshire Dock Hall (often abbreviated to ''DDH'') is a large indoor shipbuilding and assembly complex that forms part of the BAE Systems shipyard in the Barrow Island area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. History Constructed between ...
in
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completed in 1986, the Jackfield Bridge completed in 1994, the
Royal Armouries Museum The Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a national museum which displays the National Collection of Arms and Armour. It is part of the Royal Armouries family of museums, with other sites at the Royal Armouries' traditio ...
in
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completed in 1996, the
Kirklees Stadium Kirklees Stadium (currently known due to sponsorship as the John Smith's Stadium) is a multi-use stadium in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. Since 1994, it has been the home ground of football club Huddersfield Town and rugby league si ...
in
Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...
completed in 1997 (known commercially as the McAlpine Stadium until 2004), the JJB Stadium in
Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...
completed in 1999 (now known as the
DW Stadium The DW Stadium is a stadium in Robin Park, in Wigan, within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The ground is owned and managed by Wigan Football Company Limited, which is 85% owned by Wigan Athletic and 15% owned ...
), the
Eden Project The Eden Project ( kw, Edenva) is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England, UK. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit, located from the town of St Blazey and from the larger town of St Austell.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS ...
in
St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell wa ...
completed in 2001,
Wythenshawe Hospital Wythenshawe Hospital (previously University Hospital of South Manchester) is a large NHS teaching hospital in Wythenshawe, South Manchester, England. It provides general medical services to the local and regional area as well as being a national ...
completed in 2001,
Hereford County Hospital Hereford County Hospital is an acute general hospital on Stonebow Road in Hereford. It is managed by Wye Valley NHS Trust. History The foundation stone for Hereford County Hospital was laid in 1937 by Queen Mary. It was built adjacent to the sit ...
completed in 2002, the
M6 Toll The M6 Toll, referred to on signs as the Midland Expressway (originally named the Birmingham Northern Relief Road or BNRR), and stylised as M6toll, connects M6 Junction 3a at the Coleshill Interchange to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton with ...
completed in 2003, the redevelopment of
Stoke Mandeville Hospital Stoke Mandeville Hospital is a large National Health Service (NHS) hospital located on the parish borders of Aylesbury and Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, England. It is managed by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. It was established i ...
completed in 2006, the new elective care facility for
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completed in 2007 and the Bluestone Holiday Complex completed in 2008. File:Manchester Central.jpg, Manchester Central File:BAE Systems from Walney.jpg,
Devonshire Dock Hall Devonshire Dock Hall (often abbreviated to ''DDH'') is a large indoor shipbuilding and assembly complex that forms part of the BAE Systems shipyard in the Barrow Island area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. History Constructed between ...
File: Warm up at the DW Stadium, Wigan - geograph.org.uk - 2012508.jpg,
DW Stadium The DW Stadium is a stadium in Robin Park, in Wigan, within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The ground is owned and managed by Wigan Football Company Limited, which is 85% owned by Wigan Athletic and 15% owned ...
File:Huddersfield_002.jpg,
Kirklees Stadium Kirklees Stadium (currently known due to sponsorship as the John Smith's Stadium) is a multi-use stadium in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. Since 1994, it has been the home ground of football club Huddersfield Town and rugby league si ...
File:Eden project.JPG,
Eden Project The Eden Project ( kw, Edenva) is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England, UK. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit, located from the town of St Blazey and from the larger town of St Austell.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS ...


References


Sources

*


External links


Official siteYahoo profile
{{Authority control Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1935 Construction and civil engineering companies of the United Kingdom Construction companies based in London Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange * 1935 establishments in England British companies disestablished in 2008 2008 disestablishments in England Business services companies established in 1935 Defunct construction and civil engineering companies 2008 mergers and acquisitions British companies established in 1935 Construction and civil engineering companies disestablished in 2008