Haverhill company ATM Fabrications’ 14m high sculpture set to take pride of place at The Shackleton Museum in County Kildare, Ireland

A 45-feet high sculpture that will provide a striking feature at a museum dedicated to one of the world’s most famous explorers has been made in Haverhill.

The iceberg shaped structure, which measures 14 metres in height and has a base of ten by eight metres has been fabricated and pre-assembled by ATM Fabrications at its site in Homefield Road.

At the end of September, it will be taken to The Shackleton Museum in Athy, Co Kildare, Ireland, which is dedicated to the life and work of renowned polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.

Andy Mason, director and joint owner of ATM Fabrications (which was created 18-months ago and forms part of the ATM Group) said the company was contacted by Vienna-based Waagner Biro and asked if it would be interested in taking on the project.

He said: “When you look at it, it is a very complex structure.

“We were like ‘wow, can we do that, should we do this’ but again, it’s just the prestige of the work that made us decide to take it on.

“We’ve had to pre-assemble it for the engineers to come over from Italy and look at it, and its all been approved now for painting and to be delivered.”

Once delivered to the museum, the structure will be covered in glass by Waagner Biro.

Mr Mason continued: “The actual fabrications side has taken us two or three weeks.

“They’ve done it quite quickly to be fair but it isn’t quite finished.

“It is supposed to be at the end of September when it will be taken to the museum.”

The ATM Group has, said Mr Mason, installed hundreds of ‘iconic landmarks’ in the UK and abroad, including many in London, such as the Gherkin, Paddington Square and Canary Wharf, plus a number of structures in Dubai.

It is currently installing around 100 tonnes of structural steel at Johnson Matthey in Royston, which is probably the biggest project that ATM is involved in but the Shackleton Museum sculpture is one that Mr Mason feels is the ‘most prestigious’ one to date.

ATM Fabrications has a team of some 30 fabricators and the construction of the iceberg involved about ten of those in all.

Mr Mason added: “The work we do is international.

“It’s something that the town can look at and be proud of.”