The company was originally appointed as Clerk of Works consultants on the project in March 2016.
The new campus, which will soon open its doors to new students for the 2018/2019 academic year, has transformed a former 58-acre Brownfield site into a modern academic facility for 15,000 students, residential facilitates for 1,000 students and leisure facilities for the wider community.
The area being used to create the Waterside Campus was formally the home of a large coal fired power station located near the centre of Northampton, flanked by the River Nene. The project has included demolition of the power station, moving considerable high voltage infrastructure, building two new bridges over the river, providing five new academic buildings, restoring a listed building, building a student village, a hotel and an energy centre complete with mechanical and electrical infrastructure to serve the campus.
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Bowmer & Kirkland was appointed to build the Academic buildings, which included the construction of the five main teaching buildings – a Creative Hub, Learning Hub, Research and Enterprise Hub, Sports Hub and Logistics, and also involves the refurbishment of a Grade II listed engine shed for the Students Union building and associated offices.
Elsewhere, Kier was appointed to develop the residential zone, which will be home to 1,000 undergraduate, postgraduate and international students who will be the first to be taught at the new campus in the 2018/2019 academic year. The company constructed a mixture of student accommodation including five-storey flats and four-storey townhouses with landscaped courtyards and included a 32-bed hotel.
In addition, Vital constructed The Energy Centre, which provides low carbon heat to all Academic, Residential and future Commercial buildings via a district heating network. The building has two primary levels housing a woodchip biomass boiler, gas boilers, and thermal storage vessels together with associated ancillary plant equipment.
Gage-Tupper's appointment was to provide three full-time Clerk of Works Service for Building disciplines and an additional two full-time Clerks of Works for M&E disciplines. The project was procured under several different contracts including JCT Design & Build Contract and NEC3. The schedule of services required was typically as set out in the Institute of Clerk of Works Independent Practices Agreement.
Michael Gage, company Chairman, said: "We are delighted to have been involved with the University of Northampton and MACE to help deliver a vibrant new campus. The project has been challenging at times with having four main Contractors on one site but good collaboration and team working has seen the university's ambitions come to life and helped to deliver a world class educational establishment."
