The finishing touches are being put to Walsall’s new £38 million college building, which is forming a key part of the town’s renaissance.

The mammoth 18-month project is nearing a close, with builders this week putting in place two giant staircases to frame a 61ft atrium.

The building, which occupies a landmark position on the newly-constructed ring road along Littleton Street West, will be formally handed over by Shepherd Construction to college chiefs in May.

This week workers have been installing two staircases, which each contain up to 100 steps. Using a 30 ton crane, they completed the operation in eight days.

Work is now underway on the internal fit out ready for the new intake of students, who will be filing through the doors at the start of the new term in September.

The five storey, 23,515 sq m college will play a key part in the regeneration programme of Walsall and will include fully fitted workshops for business, creative arts, health, public services, technology and digital learning.

There will also be a salon, gym and restaurant that will be open to the public.

The teaching and vocational block sits to one side of the college site, with the roof in place and classrooms being installed.

Shepherd Construction has been leading the scheme with specialist staff brought in from Newcastle, Manchester and Sheffield.

Developers have invested more than £1million in firms in the borough to provide materials and labour for the project. One of the main suppliers has been Walsall-based Kingspan Banro.

Earlier this year, 230 workers were on site but this has now been extended to 300 as the project reaches its conclusion.

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 in Littleton Street West for the new campus, allowing the supermarket chain to open a new store in St Paul’s Street.