A contract for assembling pioneering suction bucket foundations for Vattenfall’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) has helped safeguard around 35 jobs and create up to another 105 positions in Newcastle upon Tyne after being awarded to Smulders Projects.

The company will carry out the work on the 11 foundations at its Wallsend-based manufacturing facility which Smulders acquired from fabricator, OGN Group, at the end of last year.

In the longer-term, the total number of around 140 jobs involved in the work could more than double to around 400 posts.

Smulders was awarded the EOWDC contract by Boskalis which is the overall Tier 1 supplier of the scheme’s offshore balance of plant (BoP) work for the construction and installation (EPCI) of the offshore infrastructure including the foundations and cabling.