Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, today announces that it has been appointed by the University of Manchester to deliver the bulk of its £1bn capital programme through a partnership framework agreement along with two other contractors.
Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke and Sir Robert McAlpine will deliver the majority of the University’s capital projects in excess of £10m over the next eight years. The University of Manchester’s Campus Masterplan is the largest capital programme in the institution’s history and is one of the largest currently underway in the higher education sector.
The contractors will work on a number of major developments, including the flagship £350m Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD), which will bring together the University’s four Schools of Engineering in one location and also provide teaching and office space.
University Director of Estates and Facilities, Diana Hampson, said: “This Construction Partnering Framework is probably unique within higher education. The scope and scale of the Campus Masterplan requires a huge amount of resource and presents significant delivery challenges. A collaborative, partnership arrangement was therefore vital in ensuring both quality and value.
“It will benefit all partners and importantly it will have environmental as well as social benefits such as creating jobs for unemployed people. We are looking forward to working closely with the three contractors on some landmark developments across our campus.”
Jon Adams, Balfour Beatty Managing Director for Northern Major Projects: “We applaud The University of Manchester for their innovative and ground breaking procurement route which enables delivery of best value and we look forward to working collaboratively with them on a framework which will see over £1 billion of new University buildings delivered to create a state-of-the-art campus in Manchester. Our start-to-finish infrastructure capabilities, from design through to piling, construction and mechanical and electrical services enables us to meet the demands of this framework which will provide an improved built environment for the 40,000 students the University serves.”
Media Enquiries:
Richard Hall
Tel: +44 (0) 7780 226466
richard.hall@balfourbeatty.com
Notes to editors:
Balfour Beatty (www.balfourbeatty.com) is a leading international infrastructure group. With 36,000 employees, we provide innovative and efficient infrastructure that underpins our daily lives, supports communities and enables economic growth. We finance, develop, build and maintain complex infrastructure such as transportation, power and utility systems, social and commercial buildings.
Our main geographies are the UK, US, Middle East and South East Asia. Over the last 100 years we have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world, including the London Olympics’ Aquatic Centre, Hong Kong’s first Zero Carbon building, the world’s biggest shopping mall in Dubai, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in the US and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
The University of Manchester, a member of the prestigious Russell Group of British universities, is the largest and most popular university in the UK. It has 20 academic schools and hundreds of specialist research groups undertaking pioneering multi-disciplinary teaching and research of worldwide significance.
The University is one of the country’s major research institutions, rated fifth in the UK in terms of ‘research power’ (REF 2014), and has had no fewer than 25 Nobel laureates either work or study there. The University had an annual income of £886 million in 2013/14. www.manchester.ac.uk
The University’s £1 billion Campus Masterplan 2012-22 will create some of the world’s most modern facilities for staff, students and visitors. Projects include the Manchester Engineering Campus Development; the newly-opened £61m National Graphene Institute; the redevelopment of Manchester Business School including a new hotel and executive education centre; and a proposed student residential development in Fallowfield.
