THE construction firm involved in a joint venture to deliver Edinburgh Trams extension and a raft of other high profile civil engineering projects is looking for a new Scottish chief. 

Farrans Construction has launched a recruitment process to find the next director for its civil engineering division in Scotland ahead of the retirement of Jim Steele from the senior post in 2022.

The company, which has had an established presence in Scotland for more than 70 years, is a leading building and civil engineering contractor with over 500 employees delivering world-class projects across the UK and Ireland. Farrans is a sister company of Tarmac, and part of CRH, the leading building materials business in the world.

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In Scotland, Farrans is on site on a number of strategically important, high-profile infrastructure and renewable energy projects including a Quay Extension in Nigg Port, the A92/A96 Haudagain improvement for Transport Scotland and the construction of a £40m, 15 WTG windfarm for Scottish Power.

As part of the joint venture, the company is delivering the Edinburgh Trams York Place to Newhaven project for the City of Edinburgh Council. Trams to Newhaven will add 4.69 kilometres/2.91 miles of track in both directions, connecting Leith and Newhaven to the current end of the Edinburgh tram line at York Place with eight new stops.

The regional director Scotland (Civils) will have full operational responsibility for the performance of the region including SHEQ, P&L, the development of people, client management and upholding responsibilities to the environment and communities in which the company is operating.

Based in the regional office in Oakbank, Livingston and reporting to the civils operations director, the successful candidate will be responsible for leading multi-site project teams from pre-construction to post-construction, regularly reviewing project status to ensure key milestones are achieved.

Jonny Kerr, civils operations director of Farrans, said: “Scotland is a very important region for our business and we see a lot of opportunities for the future. We are looking for a natural leader who has the ability to inspire a senior team to deliver key construction projects and commercial business plans, while also establishing our partner relationships. The right person will be joining our company at a time of optimism and ambition for the future and they will be an integral part of our senior team. We encourage applications from a diverse range of candidates from contractor, client or services side.

“We wish Jim well in his retirement and thank him for the work that he has done to date. There will be a hand over period of several months, so we won’t be bidding farewell to Jim until early next year. We know he will remain interested in developments in the industry following his illustrious career both in Scotland and internationally.”

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