Regeneration agency Liverpool Land Development Company (LLDC) has announced the start on site of its first project – a major piece of public art on the main road into South Liverpool.
Construction of the Mersey Wave on Speke Boulevard began last night and will take place each night for the remainder of the week.
The 30m-high artwork will be 10m taller than the Angel of the North in Gateshead and features 12 angled illuminated steel fins coated with blue powder aluminium.
Designed by Anglo-Czech lighting artist Peter Fink, the installation was commissioned by LLDC and has been funded by a £1.2m grant from the North West Development Agency (NWDA).
The structural engineer is Techniker and the contractor is Balfour Beatty.
The fins were constructed by Alan Dawson Associates.
Local private sector sponsors have also contributed to the construction costs.
These include Jaguar Cars, Getrag Ford, Lear Corporation, Herberts Auto Coatings, European Metal Recycling, Visteon Global technologies, Peel Holdings, FX Coughlin, Chiron Vaccines and Pillar Properties.
At night, the Mersey Wave will be visible from up to one mile away.
LLDC was launched by Liverpool council, the NWDA and English Partnerships in April as the successor to Speke Garston Development Company (SGDC), which it incorporates.
The company is responsible for four of the five Strategic Investment Areas (SIAs) in the city, with the SIAs having been identified as Liverpool’s key areas for potential business growth in the EU’s Objective One programme.
LLDC’s four SIA areas are:
- Approach 580
- Eastern Approaches
- Atlantic Gateway Northshore
- Speke Halewood
The fifth Liverpool SIA is known as City Centre and is the responsibility of Liverpool Vision.
References: EGi News 19/11/03
