Shipley College is a General Further Education college based in Shipley, West Yorkshire. The college provides courses for school leavers, as well as apprenticeships and adult learning opportunities. Shipley College is made up of four buildings: The Exhibition Building, Mill Building, Salt Building, and the Jonathan Silver Building. This project involved works across all four of the buildings, carried out in two phases.
Phase one of the works was undertaken during summer 2023 – to the Exhibition and Jonathan Silver Building, with phase two taking place in summer of 2024. The second phase saw us tackle the Salt and Mill Buildings. The works saw us complete internal finishing works, including new ceiling tiles, floor finishes and décor, alongside vital electrical works. The latter included new lighting, emergency lighting, replacement of dado trunking, additional small power, and a new fire alarm system throughout all four buildings.
Bespoke items were also required as part of the works, including a replacement metal fire escape staircase to the Exhibition Building, and a new internal lift to the Mill Building.
The sheer volume of work required within a limited time period (and ahead of the students’ post-summer arrival) was the key challenge during this project.
With careful planning and programming, an agreed set of enabling works was carried out on both phases of works, prior to the summer closure. This drastically reduced the workload over the summer period, while plenty of night and evening shifts meant individual sections of the project could be undertaken with minimal disruption to college life.
In between both summer periods, works were undertaken during the College’s closed holidays. This meant our team (and our subcontractors) could take advantage of every possible period of closure to deliver the project for the client in a timely manner.
The project was delivered over the two summer periods, with works also carried out during February half-term, and Easter and October half-term periods.
Lodestone Projects, along with our subcontract base, managed to successfully deliver our largest project value to date without causing any disruption to college life.