Barnsley’s Billington Structures Ltd has proved it’s in a class of its own after building the steel frame for the new state of the art Manchester Enterprise Academy.
The structural steel specialist working as a framework partner to Manchester City Council, through its joint venture contractors Balfour Beatty and Laing O’Rourke, provided 500 tonnes of structural steelwork for the £19million educational facility. Within just five months of work beginning on site the Academy has been constructed and was ready for its first intake of students this September.
The high-tech Academy, which has been hailed as a learning environment that will change the way future generations are educated, will provide 750 places for 11 to 16 year-olds as well as post-16 education for 120 students next year.
This is the fifth school development in Manchester that Billington Structures has been involved with.
Mick Strutt, Project Manager at Billington Structures, said: “The completion of Manchester Enterprise Academy enhances our strong reputation within the construction of educational facilities. We have worked well with Balfour Beatty to complete the project to the timescales and we look forward to working on similar developments in the future.”
Over the past five years Billington Structures has been involved in over 35 schools projects, together with numerous colleges and academies throughout the United Kingdom. The company, which has plants in Barnsley and in Bristol, is currently working on a major contract to supply the structural steelwork for an extensive programme to rebuild 11 schools in Barnsley.
Its plant in Barnsley will manufacture and build steel frames to the first tranche of secondary schools currently under construction for the £1bn Building Schools for the Future scheme in the town. The initiative, which has been dubbed the biggest educational building project in western Europe, will involve the creation of Advanced Learning Centres to replace the current secondary schools.