COST Of Port Glasgow’s Long-Awaited Shipbuilding Sculpture Now Almost £600,000

24 August, 2021 | Local

Sculptor John McKenna posted this image of a ‘test trial build’ of the figures at his studio in Ayrshire on Twitter in October 2020.

PORT Glasgow’s controversial shipbuilding sculpture is due to finally be installed in early 2022, at a total cost of around £600,000 and nine years after the project began.

‘Shipbuilders of Port Glasgow’ by John McKenna features two 11-metre tall figures and will be located in Coronation Park, in line with John Wood Street.

The project was started by regeneration organisation Riverside Inverclyde in 2013 when a public vote was held to select a piece of public art to put on a roundabout on the A8 near B&Q to address the lack of distinguishing features or “sense of arrival” at the western entrance to Port Glasgow.

It was later realised that this site would mean extra costs during maintenance because of the need to manage traffic, so an alternative site was chosen in Coronation Park, despite that being on the eastern side of the town.

An image of how the sculpture was expected to look at the original intended location, a roundabout on the A8.

The latest update from Inverclyde Council officials states: “The figures are now substantially complete and ready for installation.

“The hull sections..will be ready by September. The pandemic has delayed progress along with an increase in material costs and the total cost to fabricate and install the sculpture has increased by £35,000.

“Moving the sculpture to Coronation Park has required further site investigation of the ground conditions. This has highlighted that the revised location in the park comprises of infill material and as a result additional foundation works are required to take the foundation down to hard material.

“The result of this is that the foundation will be piled down to rock. The additional site investigation has increased the costs by £8,000. The budget required to install the sculpture is now £598,000.

“Officers are continuing to explore possible contributions from external grant funding or external private funding.”

The report continues: “The foundation works are projected to take around three months with an anticipated completion in December 2021. Works to erect the sculpture will start in early 2022 and are programmed to take around two to three weeks to assemble however suitable weather conditions are required to complete the installation.”

The original budget was around £250,000. In June 2017, Inverclyde councillors agreed to press on with the commission despite being told the cost to procure, fabricate and install the sculpture had more than doubled to more than £555,000. The latest issues have added a further £43,000.

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