In pictures: See how JLR site at i54 has changed
These dramatic images show the huge expanse of the almost completed Jaguar Land Rover engine factory on the i54 site.
Stretching alongside the M54 motorway, the vast plant now extends to around two million sq ft – equivalent to nearly 30 football pitches – and represents an investment by the car maker of £1 billion over the last five years.
The original target of employing around 1,400 people at the car plant will be reached this year, but the expansion of the factory – doubling its size – is expected to add another 1,000 to that total.
In many ways the factory is the biggest legacy of the former regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands, which pumped £64 million into cleaning up the heavily polluted site to make it ready for building work. Plans for the 220-acre site were first unveiled in 2003 but progress was painfully slow.
Despite a decade of work, just one firm had moved on to the site and questions were being asked about the cost when reports surfaced that Jaguar Land Rover was looking for a site to build a new engine factory.
It came down to a run-off between South Wales and the Midlands.
In April 2011 Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable joined Jaguar Land Rover in announcing i54 would be the site for an 800,000 sq ft £355 million factory creating up to 750 jobs.
Work got under way in April 2012 on clearing and levelling the site.
By January 2013 the steelwork was up, despite often appalling winter weather, as construction company Interserve pushed on.
In October 2014
the site was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen.
By the beginning of 2015 diesel engines were running off the production line and workforce numbers had risen to nearly 700, with 300 more working for contractors.
