Pushing boundaries of innovation

I love the phrase ‘it goes without saying’ because it is usually followed up by you saying everything that you’d said you weren’t going to say. If you know what I mean?

In this case it goes without saying that the Sheffield City Region has some of the most creative minds in the country, maybe even the world, in fields as varied as digital or engineering (are they varied or are they on the same spectrum? That’s a discussion for another day).

Anyway, for an area that constantly beats itself up about not shouting about itself we seem to be doing rather well on projects large and small.

Our cover stars this issue, the SCX Group, have been rightly lauded for the work they’ve been doing at Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium in London and south of the river in the capital city at the All England Club’s centre and No 1 courts.

Your can read elsewhere in the magazine about how Simon Eastwood and his team at SCX put together these amazing feats of engineering, but the bottom line is that Sheffield is still very much at the forefront of providing solutions to some of construction’s most difficult challenges.

I’m always impressed when speaking to bosses at some of our area’s leading engineering firms just how far and wide they export.

Tufcot Engineering managing director Greg Majchrzak once told me that the biggest job they had ever done was now part of a swing bridge somewhere in China.

To him it’s maybe just another order – I suspect, actually, that this was quite a special order! – but to me it makes me feel quite proud that there are parts manufactured in my home city that are now serving a vital purpose thousands of miles away.

And it’s not just because Tufcot were the cheapest or got lucky on a random Google search it’s because they are the best at what they do, very much in same way that SCX have worked on two of the biggest sporting infrastructure projects over the past 10 years.

There are many other firms with similar stories to tell. Sheffield has always pushed the boundaries of innovation and by continuing to do so it very much keeps our name on the map.