Willmott Dixon seals £10.3m Birkenhead Academy deal

Aaron Morby 14 years ago
Share

Willmott Dixon has secured the job to revitalise Birkenhead High School Academy, delivering big savings from a mix of refurbishment and new build.

The builder starts work this month and will remodel and refurbish existing school buildings and carry out an element of new build for £10.3m.

The academy job is the latest to see a shift away from building completely new facilities towards a more cost effective mix of refurbishment and new build.

Chief executive for Willmott Dixon’s Capital Works division, John Frankiewcz, said, “While there will always be a need to create new buildings, clients are being more innovative in how they renew them and this includes mixing refurbishment with new-build to modernise and enlarge the facility.

“As local authorities reduce their budgets in light of the Comprehensive Spending Review, the project to modernise Birkenhead High School Academy for Girls could well represent the future of capital spend in education.”

He added: “We have shown recently with Macclesfield High School that taking this approach saved over £4m compared to going down a new-build route.”

In this case one third was refurbished and the remaining added as new-build, it resulted in a 22% saving against the cost of an entire new-build, a contract sum of £15m against a new-build price of £19.5m.

Birkenhead High School Academy for Girls will now benefit from a new, energy efficient school for substantially less than the cost of building a completely new facility.

Mrs Chris Mann, the new principal said “The project will enable us to continue providing an excellent all round education for girls from the area of 3-19 years of age within the glorious original buildings but with 21st century facilities.”

The project will see the nursery, infant and junior school modernised and linked together by a new light and airy three-storey building. This will provide new library and ICT facilities and an assembly hall alongside additional classrooms.

The adjacent secondary school will benefit from the old school hall, built in the 1960’s, being replaced by a multi functional central space which will offer a theatre, dining room, study areas and a café alongside a new hall. Other buildings on site will be retained but remodelled and refurbished to match the new facilities.

The landscaping across the whole site will also be improved and enhanced to include an amphitheatre, Arts terrace and extra sports facilities.

Another benefit will be increased thermal performance of the buildings, which will reduce their carbon emissions, and Willmott Dixon plan to analyse the improvements with a ‘before and after’ assessment.

Latest project news

Galliford Try to upgrade Red Arrows base

Contractor seals quartet of RAF base upgrades
11 months ago

Galliford Try bags £87m Brent Cross build to rent job

Firm picks up another three blocks at Argent's North London £8bn regeneration scheme
12 months ago

Balfour starts £67m Edinburgh school campus

Passivhaus certified campus buildings will replace Liberton High School
1 year ago

Red wins Bristol retirement village £14m expansion

44 extra care flats to be built at former Frys chocolate factory
1 year ago

Caddick bags UK’s largest fertiliser plant job

Yorkshire contractor seals £28m contract for new plant in Yorkshire
1 year ago

Mace wins concrete bunkers for world’s most powerful laser

Firm will build two 7m tall bunkers with 2m thick radiation resistant concrete walls
1 year ago

Robertson to deliver £20m Alloa Wellbeing Hub and school

Design work will now start on Wellbeing Hub and Lochies primary school
1 year ago

Green light for Canada Water next phase of 380 homes

Zone G plan includes major resi tower, supermarket and park
1 year ago

Mace to start £230m Landsec London office job

Timber Square project will pioneer a hybrid cross laminate timber and steel superstructure
1 year ago

British Land multi-storey logistics hub approved

London urban last-mile logistics hub pipeline hits £1.3bn
1 year ago

£350m Birmingham triple tower scheme approved

Vast curving Ringway Centre to be demolished for 1,750 flats development
1 year ago

Midgard lands £245m Tottenham Hale towers

Three towers of up to 38 storeys complete north London regeneration scheme
1 year ago

Go-ahead for Wates £35m Hartlepool leisure centre job

Work on the Highlight waterfront centre to start in November
1 year ago

Green light for 690-home Birmingham Smithfield scheme

Prosperity Group plans to start work in Autumn next year on major Smithfield scheme
1 year ago

Go-ahead for 289 homes next to Saltaire World Heritage site

Ambitious plan to demolish a vacant Bradford office complex for new residential quarter
1 year ago

Plans in for 800-bed Leeds student and retail scheme

Major scheme will replace The Core shopping centre in the city
1 year ago

McAleer & Rushe awarded £60m Barking flats job

Work to start in November on near 200 rental homes project
1 year ago

ISG clinches £155m Cat D prison expansion

Firm to deliver 780 new places at three existing prison locations
1 year ago

27-storey Salford student tower approved

540-bed student block to be built on former site of McDonalds' regional HQ
1 year ago

Morgan Sindall £48m Dumfries school job approved

Building work to start before the end of 2023
1 year ago

Bouygues/Murphy JV tipped for £2.3bn Thames tunnel job

Frontrunner emerges for Lower Thames Crossing 4.2km tunnel job
1 year ago

Vinci/McAlpine JV to start £105m NHS rehabilitation centre

Treasury clears New Hospital Programme job to start main construction
1 year ago

Three giant lab buildings approved at £700m Oxford R&D district

Phase 2 Oxford North office and lab buildings to deliver 460,000 sq ft of space
1 year ago

RG Group to build tallest student block in the world

Contractor confirmed on 45-storey tower in Leeds
1 year ago

Vinci wins major St Helens town centre revamp

£90m first phase includes new market hall, 120-bed hotel and over 60 flats
1 year ago

Work to start this year on Manchester £250m spa resort

Developer Therme gets green light for re-engineered 28-acre Trafford complex
1 year ago

Barhale JV sign-off for £18m Dewsbury sewage works upgrade

Project forms part of Yorkshire Water’s £500m investment in Phosphorous removal
1 year ago

Murphy seals main build on £124m Essex station

Contractor lands main contract after successful start on enabling works package
1 year ago

GMI lands latest £42m phase of lab cluster

Citylabs life sciences complex in Manchester continues to grow
1 year ago

Green light for Canada Water commercial scheme

Twin-tower scheme will offer "a new type of office for London"
1 year ago

Contractor services