Mercia Waste Management, a sister company of Severn Waste Services, has been chosen to run the facility and they in turn have awarded the construction and main engineering of the plant to Swiss-based Hitachi Zosen Inova.
Ian Barber, manager at Mercia, said: “After a diligent planning and financial negotiation process, we are delighted to be moving on to the construction phase.”
The plant, backed by Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire County Council, could last until 2042 by which time £1.6bn would have been spent on the facility. However, Anthony Blagg of Worcestershire County Council said, "If we'd have done nothing that would cost us more than £2bn by 2042."
Construction is anticipated to take approximately 33 months to complete with commissioning of the plant scheduled for spring of 2017.
