Sizewell C enabling works: early infrastructure lessons for project teams
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Sizewell C has ramped up to more than 2,000 workers on enabling infrastructure just three months after financial close, ahead of a projected 8,000-strong peak workforce for the Suffolk nuclear plant. Early works include the first of three site-connecting bridges, new access roads and roundabouts, rail links, a beach landing facility, park-and-ride sites, and on-site worker accommodation. Construction is led by the Bylor JV of Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke, with Balfour Beatty delivering supporting infrastructure and £3bn already awarded across 400+ UK suppliers.
Technical Brief
- Government final investment decision landed July 2025, with private-sector financial close following in November.
- Contracted construction value stands at roughly £3bn so far, spread across more than 400 UK suppliers.
- Nearly £1bn of those contracts are placed with firms in the Sizewell host region in eastern England.
- Over 70% of total construction spend is targeted to go to UK-based businesses over the project duration.
Our Take
With over £1bn of contracts already in the host region and a commitment that more than 70% of construction spend stays in the UK, Sizewell C is positioned to anchor a long-lived civil engineering supply chain in Suffolk and the wider east of England rather than relying on one-off mega-project teams.
Bylor’s role at both Hinkley Point C and now Sizewell C means lessons from Hinkley’s schedule slippage of at least five years can be directly fed into enabling works sequencing and constructability reviews, which is likely to drive more conservative programme and risk allowances on the Suffolk job.
In our infrastructure database, few UK projects outside nuclear carry multi‑billion contract packages spread across 400+ suppliers, so the early staffing-up at Sizewell C signals that Tier 1s such as Bouygues Travaux Publics, Laing O'Rourke and Balfour Beatty will need robust local subcontractor prequalification and training pipelines to meet nuclear-grade QA requirements.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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