Balfour Beatty Awarded £25 million London Primary Schools Contract

Balfour Beatty has been awarded a £25 million contract to extend and upgrade six primary schools for the London Borough of Merton as part of the £1 billion, four-year iESE (Improvement and Efficiency South East).

The contract includes a £5.1 million three-storey extension to Pelham Primary School; a £4.4 million new school hall, main entrance and teaching block at Hillcross primary school; a £4 million extension, including a new hall and teaching block, at Poplar Primary School;  a £2.7 million teaching block, library extension and link at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School; a £3.9 million new teaching block at Singlegate Primary School and a new £1.6 million two-storeyteaching block at Merton Abbey School.

The six-school contract is the latest to result from Balfour Beatty’s appointment to the iESE framework in 2011, through which the company has been awarded in excess of £100 million worth of work, including two recently completed primary schools in Winchester in Hampshire.

Much of the work is on school buildings dating back to the 1930s and will incorporate updates to the latest energy efficiency standards, including innovations such as photovoltaic panels and low energy lighting.

Nick Kent, Balfour Beatty iESE Senior Contract Manager, said: “These six school projects for Merton Council further strengthen our position as a leading construction partner in the education sector and build on our good working relationship with the London Borough of Merton.”

The schools projects are scheduled for completion in September 2015.

Balfour’s framework portfolio currently includes the £4 billion Education Funding Agency Framework, the £400 million National Capital Works Framework and the £250 million Regional Defence Framework for Capital Works Projects for East Midlands and Eastern England for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO).