It will build a 450-place mixed-education and student accommodation building for a new boarding sixth form college, complete with 132 residences, classrooms, a main hall, laboratories and kitchen and servery.
The job also includes building three-storey offices and refurbishing a two-storey office building on the site previously used as the Rattee and Kett Master Stonemason’s yard.
Enabling works were carried out by Balfour Beatty between March and August this year.
The newly acquired site off Harrison Drive is parallel to the main London to Cambridge railway line, requiring close engagement with Network Rail to gain the necessary permissions to clear the site and plan for construction activities without affecting rail travellers.
Balfour Beatty will use modular construction, with lightweight steel-framing to the inner skin of the internal walls and use of bathroom pods, dramatically reducing construction time.
Key supply chain partners have been engaged from an early stage, with trades such as mechanical and electrical and concrete specialists already appointed.
Dean Burgess, Balfour Beatty managing director for East Anglia, said work on the college will start soon.
The commercial building will be completed in late autumn next year, the college in winter 2016 and the final refurbishment of the existing building in spring 2016.
