Another northwest school for BAM

BAM’s selection via the DfE’s capital framework for schools in England, comes on the back of its completion in the past three years of three new schools in the Lancashire/Cheshire area – Cheadle Hulme, Didsbury and (just completed) Laurus Ryecroft.

The new Chorlton High School South will house 1,200 students in a three-storey ‘superblock’ designed by Pozzoni Architects. It will also have a two-storey sports hall. It is to be built on a plot on Mauldeth Road West in Chorlton-cum-Hardy that is currently partly occupied by Greater Manchester Police dog unit and horse paddocks.

BAM project manager Ewan Bell said: “Our first task is creating a new set of facilities for the police to migrate their units to, and then to begin the school programme in earnest. We’re greatly assisted in this by being able to conduct our own groundworks, drainage, and foundations – which are critical to this phase. We’ve also imported all the experience from creating these other schools within our team so it is perfectly placed to deliver outstanding facilities for the area.”

BAM will also deliver its own mechanical and electrical works. The plan is for facilities to be handed over in time for the opening date of the new academic year in September 2021. BAM’s early works, being external, have made social distancing in the current pandemic conditions much easier than it would be at later stages, and the handover plans currently remain unchanged.

Some parts of the project have had to adapt, with some of the site team working from home and others taking on additional responsibility, but a series of changes to the sequence have kept the project on programme, BAM said.

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