Morgan Sindall Construction’s North East business has been selected by Middlesbrough College Group to complete a £1.4 million retrofit project to increase its student capacity and course offering.
This appointment follows the tier one contractor recently completing a previous development at the college, a £12 million Engineering technical training centre.
Work on the retrofit project began in summer, with completion scheduled for November, and involves the installation of two new workshops to optimise the available space within an existing building.
The workshops will have mezzanine floors to create a teaching space within the operational environment where students can remain in PPE. The team are also installing segregation walls to the motor vehicle workshops, and acoustic upgrades to the library to create a comfortable learning environment. Additionally, Morgan Sindall will add a classroom on the building’s first floor to increase teaching space by 150%, allowing more students to study bricklaying courses.
To ensure Morgan Sindall’s onsite operations are as sustainable as possible, spaces within the college are being utilised by the team rather than creating a full site set-up with extra cabins, saving on transport, cost and fuel. The team are also utilising a “Protec” closed loop system, which uses several key stages to best analyse, recycle and reuse protection materials.
The college will remain a live site throughout the construction activity. Therefore, Morgan Sindall has coordinated with Middlesbrough College to create a robust plan to minimise inconvenience to staff and students while maintaining site security and student safety.
Alex Isted, Area Director for Morgan Sindall Construction in the North East and Cumbria, said:
Creating opportunities to upskill the next generation of construction professionals is central to our ethos as a business, as such we’re really pleased to be onsite for this second project with Middlesbrough College. Expanding and redeveloping existing space into a new educational suite allows us to creatively and sustainably deliver high-quality facilities which will give young people the best learning opportunities.
It is a pleasure to be working alongside Middlesbrough College once more and we know from the technical training centre that we have a creative and collaborative relationship. This has been reflected in this retrofit scheme, for which Middlesbrough College came to our team early on and we helped them develop and progress the project.”
Zoe Lewis, principal and chief executive of Middlesbrough College Group said:
We are delighted to be working with Morgan Sindall again who are supporting us to expand our practical working and teaching spaces for our students. We offer a significant suite of Construction programmes within the college and this additional space will allow us to train more young people in the key skills that will help them attain job roles within the region.”
Morgan Sindall’s previous project at Middlesbrough College, the £12 million Engineering technical training centre, saw the creation of a 3,000 sq. m, two-storey building able to train over 300 full-time students, 300 apprentices and 500 adults each year. Its facilities include seven large multifunction/multidiscipline workshops, seven breakout classrooms and study spaces, a large conference room, staff workspaces and student social as well as welfare areas.
ENDS