Construction work spanning the globe

Huge bridge and road projects on the island of Qatar, a 14-storey bus hub to handle the millions of pilgrims who visit the holy city of Mecca and a 30-mile bridge to link Hong Kong with Macau are all being handled by engineers from RMD Kwikform in Aldridge.

From its Black Country headquarters the firm has operations across the world, and is seeing new growth in the US, in Philippines and in New Zealand, where it is involved in the rebuilding of Canterbury following the earthquake in 2011.

RMD Kwikform is one of the world's go-to companies when it comes to the field of formwork and falsework – the temporary structures used for moulding concrete and supporting building work on construction sites around the globe.

At home it has worked extensively on the Crossrail project in London and is in the running for a construction industry award for its work on the Stockley Viaduct flyover. It also worked on the new Resort World leisure complex at the NEC in Birmingham

But more than half its work is overseas. John Warne, RMD Kwikform's strategic planning and business development manager at Aldridge, said: "The Middle East is a really important region for us. Qatar has been particularly significant in terms of infrastructure projects. There are two big highways schemes, the East/West corridor and the North Road. They are among the most challenging and exciting we have worked on in the Middle East."

The Doha East Corridor Bypass has seen six bridges structures created using thousands of tons of formwork and shoring from RMD Kwikform, including the tallest bridge in Qatar.

It will link in with the North Road project, which has seen RMD using 3-D technology to design formwork for the highly complex N5 interchange

Measuring a total of 72 metres wide, the interchange boasts the largest span of a bridge deck in Qatar with the overall shape and thickness of the bridge deck changing every few centimetres ranging from two metres to 4.5 metres. The design also had to include existing utility services.

Using a computerised model of the interchange, the RMD Kwikform engineering team overlaid formwork and shoring solutions in 3D to find the best way to support the structure.

Hundreds of special steel connectors also had to be designed and made as part of the project.

RMD Kwikform's sales manager on the scheme, Izzet Ataol said: "As a business we have never provided solutions for a bridge like this before in the whole of the Middle East. When our technical team saw the design, they likened it to that of a rollercoaster, as it moved so dramatically from one metre to the next, sloping in one direction and then another, with the concrete thickness increasing and decreasing across its profile."

Another project that relied on technical know-how has been used on the West Kowloon Terminus in Hong Kong, part of a £7 billion high speed transport link to connect Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland.

Extra heavy-duty shoring support was needed to construct walls with the sea on the other side, and these were designed back at Aldridge so that concrete could be poured for the 230m long wall sections on either side of the railway station.

The growing workload at RMD Kwikform is in turn boosting results at its parent company, Interserve, as its most recent half year .

But the RMD Kwikform business has proved a stellar performer in Interserve's most recent set of financial results: its revenue figure rose 15 per cent to £104.2 million, while its contribution to the group's operating profit jumped by a third to £18.6m.

Unveiling a strong first half performance for the whole group, Interserve chief executive Adrian Ringrose singled out the performance of the Aldridge business, saying: "RMD Kwikform is knocking the ball out of the park."

Across the business as a whole revenue was up 16 per cent to £1.6 billion, while pre-tax profits jumped 19% to £33.7 million over the six months. Interserve spans construction and services, with around 1,000 of its 80,000-strong global workforce in the Black Country, from hundreds of support workers at Russells Hall Hospital to engineering staff at West Bromwich.