14 NSC
Apr 20
China’s leading biologics medicine manufacturer is constructing its first ever
European production facility in Ireland. Martin Cooper reports from Dundalk.
Located on a large greenfield site on
the outskirts of Dundalk, County
Louth, WuXi Biologics is investing
more than €300M on a new
biopharmaceuticals contract manufacturing
facility, which will provide a valuable
employment boost to the region.
The company describes the facility as
a ‘factory of the future’ as it will be at the
forefront of new production methods that
will allow the cost-effective manufacture of
both small and large volumes of medicines.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland
Leo Varadkar was reported as saying that
the WuXi Biologics investment represents
the start of something very special for the
country and Dundalk. “It is the first ever
sizeable greenfield project from China
in the pharmaceutical sector and it will
hopefully pave the way for many more.”
Construction work started early last year
with a large-scale earthmoving programme
that prepared the ground and allowed the
building’s concrete pad foundations to be
installed.
All of the facility’s main structures
are steel-framed and they consist of a
laboratory and administration block,
production building, warehouse, and a
central utility building (CUB). A final steel
tonnage of approximately 5,500t has been
erected by Kiernan Structural Steel (KSS)
for the job.
Using up to four 120t-capacity mobile
cranes for the steel erection, KSS has also
installed 66,000m2 of metal deck flooring as
well as precast stairs.
The production building was the first
structure to be erected. It is 100m-long
× 70m-wide and includes three floors
(ground, first and second) and two
intermediate mezzanines (named floors 1.5
and 2.5). Steelwork for this large braced
frame has been designed around a regular
9m × 9m column grid pattern.
“The erection sequence required us to
install the steelwork in individual bays up to
the structure’s full height and we generally
had up to 80 people working on site
throughout the main programme,” explains
KSS Construction Project Manager Niall
Butler.
The CUB was erected at the same time
as the production building. This two-storey
structure is located a small distance away
from the other buildings, measures 42m ×
27m and required 320t of steel.
One end of the production building is
connected to the warehouse, via a twostorey
link. Although the two are joined,
Industrial
FACT FILE
WuXi Biologics plant,
Dundalk
Main client:
WuXi Biologics
Main contractor:
Jacobs Engineering
Structural engineer:
IPS/Greg Daly
Consulting Engineers
Steelwork contractor:
Kiernan Structural Steel
Steel tonnage: 5,500t
Factory of the future
/Construction
/Braced_frames
/Construction#Mobile_cranes
/Construction#Mobile_cranes
/Steel_construction_products#Decking_for_floors
/Single_storey_industrial_buildings#Mezzanines
/Concept_design#Floor_grids
/Construction#Steel_erection