Engineering Gallery

Piling foundations JLP01_01_167_38

CORYTON OIL REFINERY, THURROCK, ESSEX. Foundation work in progress for the Crude Distillation Unit at Coryton Oil Refinery, showing men working on pile foundations and a back actor machine excavating between piles.
The caption beneath this album print reads Crude Distillation Unit - 16" x 16" vertical and raking piles, breaking away concrete surrounding main reinforcement prior to burning off at cut off level. Back Actor excavating between piles (Tower Foundations).
Coryton Oil Refinery was ceremonially opened in May 1954 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. It was operated by Vacuum Oil Company; a unit of Mobil. From 1996, the refinery was run by BP as part of a joint venture with Mobil. Ownership of Coryton Refinery was later transferred to BP in 2000, and then Petroplus Holdings in 2007. Major products of the refinery included petrol and diesel, aviation fuels, liquefied petroleum gas, fuel oils and bitumen. Coryton Oil Refinery was closed down in 2012

© Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection

Bury St Edmunds Sugar Silo JLP01_10_01050

Bury St Edmunds Sugar Beet Factory, Bury St. Edmunds, St. Edmundsbury, Suffolk. The elevator tower and two sugar silos during construction at Bury St Edmunds Sugar Beet Factory.
A sugar factory began operating at Bury St Edmunds in 1924. In 1972 Laing were awarded the contract to build four sugar silos and a new beet handling plant for the British Sugar Corporation at Bury St Edmunds. The new silos made the factory the largest of its kind in Europe. The original construction period for the project was reduced by a third due to the need to retain storage and access to the silos and factory during the sugar beet campaign, which ran between September and February. New methods of construction, however, reduced manpower requirements and had the potential to increase speed. These new methods included the use of a crane with a revolving jib to hoist and distribute concrete, which replaced the use of a monorail on the working platform at the top of the silo. Construction of the first silo began in February 1973, and the elevator tower in March. The second silo, shown on the left of this photograph, was started on 7th May and was completed on 12th May

© Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection

Oil rig on the move JLP01_10_01584_6

Graythorp Dry Dock, Hartlepool. The Graythorp basin flooded and the dock gates removed for float out of oil platform. The Laing Offshore Graythorp project involved the development of the former shipyard at Graythorp dock to form an oil platform construction base. Permanent dock gates were constructed consisting of hollow rectangular concrete caissons resting on a sill between two sets of sand filled cofferdams. Photographed in June 1974

© Historic England. John Laing Photographic Collection