Member Article

Phase five gets underway

Surgo commences fifth phase of work at local college

A £3.3 million refurbishment and upgrade project has recently got underway at South Tyneside College, including its world famous South Shields Marine School, with the arrival on site of leading contractor Surgo Construction (Surgo).

This latest programme of works, which has been funded by the college with a sizeable contribution from the North East LEP, represents a fifth phase of work for the contractor on behalf of the college.

Now on site, Surgo will undertake a total strip out and reinstallation of the building services across four workshops and refurbish and remodel the space for 20 classrooms, predominantly for engineering, IT, specialist facilities for staff development and LLDD as well as staff rooms, to bring the building up to date.

As part of the project, with separate funding, the college is also buying new high voltage training equipment to boost its marine courses and adding additional equipment to its new Advanced Manufacturing workshop.

These latest improvements will enhance college facilities, further increase the international reputation for excellence of its marine school and boost its stature and appeal as a high quality place to study for students across the North East.

Speaking about this latest project win, Surgo director, Jeff Alexander, said:

“Having successfully delivered previous phases of work, we have an established relationship with South Tyneside College and are delighted to have been selected to undertake this latest project. The work will be carried out sequentially to ensure that two workshops remain in use and the rest of the building is ready for students returning at the start of the new academic year.”

Speaking about the project and the ongoing success of the college, which has 11,000 full and part-time students, chief executive of South Tyneside College, Dr Lindsey Whiterod OBE, added:

“In partnership with Surgo, we are enhancing facilities in some key departments so that our students can enjoy an even better learning experience.

“The college has been highly successful in the past five years in attracting outside funding of around £6 million for important capital improvements which, along with college reserves, has enabled more than £15 million of improvements to be made to the college estate. These have brought real benefits to our learners and staff.

“Surgo is an important partner and its high quality work and operations mean this latest phase of our development is in safe and very capable hands. We are greatly looking forward to seeing our students using and benefitting from these improved facilities.”

The award-winning Howarth Litchfield Partnership is the architect on the scheme.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Leigh Chelton .