A GIGANTIC tower weighing 42 tonnes has completed a 12-hour road journey from Widnes to Scotland.

The 49 metre tower is the biggest ever built by Hutchinson Engineering in Everite Road.

It was as heavy as six elephants.

The epic manoeuvre took weeks to plan and involved police escorts along the entire route.

Business development director Neal Scrivener said: "The move went remarkably well considering its size.

"This is the biggest tower we have ever built and the logistics required to send it to Fife made it an incredible project to be involved with."

The huge structure was commissioned by ATB Riva Calzoni of Brescia, Italy, on behalf of wind farm developer, Spectrum Energy Systems of Worksop

Hutchinson, engineers for more than three decades, specialise in wind turbine towers.

The company has produced structures for international companies such as Endurance, ATB, RRB, Evance, Xzeres Wind, Nova Wind, Harbon, Quiet Revolution, Bergey and Kingspan.

The firm invested £750,000 upgrading its Widnes facilities in 2015 alone.

This included a new grit blast facility cost of £500,000 and created five new jobs, followed by the installation of improved steel rolling capability.

Last year, the company invested more than £2 million last year in a new factory with 25 new staff to advance its wind turbine operation.