The transition by Northumberland County Council from a three-tier to a two-tier education system*, has led to further work in the shape of a £1.3m contract win for the North East office of leading national engineering specialist, SES Engineering Services (SES).
Working on behalf of main contractor, Galliford Try, which was appointed by the Education and Schools Funding Agency (ESFA), SES is making a welcome return to The Duchess’s Community High School, Alnwick as work gets underway on a significant two-storey extension.
In 2016, SES was part of Galliford Try’s original team constructing the new school which formed part of a £150m contract to build six new primary and six new secondary schools across the region. This was awarded by ESFA under the Government’s Priority School Building Programme (PSBP).
To accommodate circa 400 extra students, the 3,239 sqm extension will create 24 additional teaching spaces, along with a second kitchen facility.
On this latest phase of work, SES has been appointed to carry out a full installation of all mechanical, electrical and plumbing services and will utilise its dedicated offsite manufacturing facility, Prism, to produce corridor modules.
Speaking about securing this latest piece of repeat business, SES’ Business Director North, Steve Joyce said:
“We’re pleased to be back working with Galliford Try at The Duchess’s Community High School. We’ll be working closely with them to reduce any disruption to staff and pupils. By using prefabricated modules we will be able to speed up the build process, meaning that everything will be finished by August 2018, well in time for the start of the academic year.”
Galliford Try’s Project Manager, Matthew Naylor added:
“We are delighted to be working on behalf of ESFA and supporting Northumberland County Council as it transitions to a two-tier education system with this ongoing opportunity in Alnwick.
“Our success on the first phase of works, which was completed in September 2016, on time and on budget, led to the overall project – to build 12 new schools – award-winning industry recognition. Whilst this is a smaller scheme our level of commitment, and that of SES and the rest of the project team will be the same to ensure the school is ready to educate an increased number of students when the new academic year commences in September 2018.”
SES is due to start on site later this month.