Around 40 people are fitting out Chatham Historic Dockyard's first national museum.

ISG, a global company, has taken on local workers to create a new home for priceless exhibits from the National Maritime Museum and Imperial War Museum. Many of the exhibits have never been seen in public before and are expected to attract thousands more visitors to the dockyard when the museum opens later this year.

The national museum at the dockyard's Number 1 Smithery will display and store nationally important maritime collections, especially models, art and other items.

ISG is creating purpose-built hi-tech display galleries, a temporary exhibition space, education and interactive areas, together with storage and research facilities. The project is due for completion in June.

An ISG spokesman said there were around 40 skilled workers on site, many drawn from the local community. "This is something ISG aims to do across all of its jobs and actively seeks to employ locally based skilled trades people to both benefit local communities and reduce the carbon impact of schemes," he said.

Craig Tatton, ISG's managing director, said: "Effective communication between client and contractor is an essential prerequisite when working within historically important environments.

"With multiple stakeholders often involved in these type of schemes, the ability to work collaboratively with every key partner is key to the ultimate success of the project, and this represents an area where ISG particularly excels and adds real value to developments."

The company has previously worked on the £87m transformation of the Royal Festival Hall, refurbishment of the Victoria and Albert Museum (£18m), a £30 million fit out at the London Stock Exchange, and a £22m National Tennis Centre. It is also working on the £80m Olympic velodrome for 2012