AFTER lying dormant for four years, a massive warehouse has finally been let out – and 100 jobs could be created.

Despite the challenging market conditions, facilities services provider Interserve has opted to move in and rent the 240,000 sq ft Pioneer Point at Pioneer Business Park, Ellesmere Port.

Situated between junctions seven and eight of the M53 motorway and owned by Peel Holdings, the complex has been waiting for someone to move in since being built in December 2005.

Now Interserve has announced that about 100 jobs will be created after it was awarded a £20m contract to build 14 modules which, when connected, will construct a large evaporator plant to be used at Sellafield nuclear power plant.

They will be transferred by sea and installed into concrete cells.

The largest of the 14 modules will be 27 metres tall and weigh 500 tonnes.

Over the course of the project, Interserve will fabricate more than 21 kilometres of pipework, bound together by 10,000 welds.

About 300 tonnes of specialist steel will be used to make the key equipment and 400 major plant items installed. The module construction phase of the project is scheduled for completion in 2011.

Mark Graveney, chief operating officer of Interserve, said: “We have a successful, 30-year history of performing large scale projects and support services on a variety of sites across the country, including nuclear licensed sites, and I am certain the team will excel themselves in the delivery of this project.”

The project includes specialist pipework fabrication, specialist equipment installation, scaffolding, electrical and instrumentation, steelwork, ducting, commissioning, security provision and site services.