College work heralds new dawn

The £38 million new Walsall College is months away from completion – with bosses hailing it as one of the most important developments in the rebirth of the town.

The Express & Star was given a glimpse of how the exciting project is taking shape almost 12 months after work on the land was started by developers Shepherd Construction Ltd.

The college roof will be fully-installed by the end of the summer, and the construction of the whole building is due to be completed next March.

The attractive atrium outside entrance is also scheduled to be finished within the next few months, with around 230 construction staff expected onto the site to keep the scheme progressing to schedule.

Regular visitors to Walsall town centre have seen the progress of work, including cladding around the teaching and vocational blocks and work on the atrium, with its roof put into place during the spring.

The eye-catching glass frontage will be completed by August and help to provide the main focal point of the new college building.

Builders are now preparing to turn their attention to the inside of the development.

The developers have invested a total of £1.2 million in firms across the borough to provide materials and labour for the project. One of the main suppliers has been Walsall-based Kingspan Banro. Around 160 workers are currently on-site, although this will be extended to around 230 at some stages of the project.

This includes people from the area and Shepherd Construction Ltd has teamed up with Walsall College to provide work experience for those on vocational courses, such as painting and bricklayers.

Construction manager Nigel Jones said there had been no major glitches and they were expecting to see the new campus finished next March. He said: “It is going very well. Once completed it is going to be a gateway building for the regeneration of Walsall.”

The multi-million pound project is one of the major regeneration projects in the borough and students will relocate from the existing St Paul’s Street campus for September 2009.

The redevelopment is part of Walsall First, an initiative between Tesco, Walsall College, Walsall Council and Walsall Regeneration Company. Tesco and the college agreed to a land swap deal that released land on Littleton Street West for the new campus and allowing the supermarket giant to open a new store in St Paul’s Street.

The college has been in its current location for 50 years. The town is the middle of a major transformation with other ambitious schemes including the ring road, the redevelopment of St Matthew’s Quarter and rebuilding of Walsall Manor Hospital.