Steelwork creates giant equine sculptures

The Falkirk skyline is about to change dramatically as two 30m high steel plated equine sculptures, known as The Kelpies, take shape.

Steelwork contractor S H Structures (SHS) is currently erecting the two giant horses’ heads, which will be Scotland’s tallest works of art, with completion scheduled for end of August.

Each sculpture needs more than 150t of structural steelwork and this will require more than 100 component deliveries to the site from SHS’s North Yorkshire fabrication facility.

Off site manufacture of the Kelpie parts is critical to ensure the highest level of quality control as well as enabling onsite erection to be achieved in the shortest possible timeframe.

Main contractor Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering previously constructed the foundations, on which The Kelpies sit, a job that included the installation of a series of 32m long piles.

The Kelpies form an important part of the overall Helix project, a £43M scheme to transform a 350 acre site beside the Forth and Clyde Canal.