Steel skeleton for Sainsbury's £60m Wolverhampton store rises from ground
It has been more than 10 years in the making.
But the people of Wolverhampton can now see the city's newest Sainsbury's store emerging from the ground.
The Raglan Street site is a hive of activity, as workers plough on with creating the new £60 million store – which will be three times the size of the one it is replacing in St George's Parade.
A large white crane is currently dominating the site, as the white steel structure for the new building begins to be lowered into place.
The view will be a welcome sight for regeneration bosses and the people of Wolverhampton.
The sprawling Raglan Street site stood empty for 10 years, while a planning wrangle raged between Sainsbury's and Tesco.
Sainsbury's has also applied for planning permission to create a gym at its new megastore.
Bosses have said they are in talks with a major leisure company about taking it on and have asked for permission to scale down the floor space from 88,000 sq ft to 72,500 sq ft to incorporate the gym.
Shoppers will be able to start heading to the new store from next summer, if work goes ahead as planned. It is one of two major supermarket developments being built in the city, both worth £60 million.
Work is also being carried out to prepare the grounds for a new Tesco store at the site of the former Royal Hospital.
Wolverhampton's supermarket wars began in 2000 when Sainsbury's announced it wanted to build a store in Raglan Street.
Tesco followed suit and unveiled its own proposals for the former Royal Hospital a year later.
But when Sainsbury's pulled out of its plans in 2004, Tesco tried to move into the Raglan Street site, only for Sainsbury's to revive its plans, which sparked a legal battle.
