Civil engineering company George Leslie Ltd has been appointed to carry out all marine works associated with the basin and river frontage. Included in this is the creation of a 40m wide esplanade river frontage that will, for the first time since shipbuilding began in this area, give the public access to the river and in particular the basin that built the ‘Three Queens’ ships.

The Queens Quay site is owned by CRL with West Dunbartonshire Council part funding the development. Dawn Urban Regeneration Ltd is the development partner and is working in partnership with the council to deliver the development.

Duncan Graham of Clydeside Regeneration Limited said: “CRL is committed to creating quality amenity space within Queens Quay as the basis for attracting further investment. Commencement of the marine works is the first step towards the process of delivering Queens Quay and represents a milestone that has taken many years to achieve. It has come about as a consequence of the partnership with West Dunbartonshire Council and all those that have assisted us along the way.”

Paul O’Donnell of Dawn Urban Regeneration Limited, said: “We are delighted to appoint George Leslie Ltd as part of our project team for Queens Quay; the firm has a proven track record and is a leader in its field. The coming year will be very important for Queens Quay with the delivery of all infrastructure and the commencement of a number of other developments.”

John McNaught, managing director at George Leslie Ltd, added: “We are delighted to have been awarded the marine works package on this regeneration project at Queens Quay. We are looking forward to working with CRL and Dawn Urban Regeneration Ltd to make a positive impact within the Clydebank community through the delivery of this important project.”

George Leslie Ltd will start work in January 2018 before construction of the new £15m care home and state-of-the-art £25m health centre starts in the summer. Subject to planning consent, construction of the Energy Centre is also expected to commence in quarter 1 2018 following the completion of the contractor tender process.

The first phase of enabling works, which included excavating existing subsoils and segregating unsuitable materials before backfilling the excavations with materials recycled from elsewhere on the site, completed in quarter 3 2017.

Once a thriving industrial yard famous for being where the QE2 and Queen Mary ships were built, Queens Quay is now a residential-led, mixed-use waterfront development extending to 80 acres. The £250m regeneration project will transform the site into a vibrant community with over 800 diverse housing units, health and leisure facilities, office and retail elements and civic spaces including parkland and a riverside walk/cycleway.

On completion of the care home and health centre, the housing, retail and leisure elements of the project will follow and will add to the existing facilities at Queens Quay, including West Dunbartonshire Council’s offices at Aurora House and a new £23.5m leisure centre which opened earlier this year.

The layout of Queens Quay will be a traditional urban grid with a main spine road going through the development and smaller roads going through to the residential grids. There will be a variety of greenspaces designed to have more than one function, such as enhancing biodiversity as well as recreational purposes.