New James Gillespie’s School Campus Newsletter November 2013 Welcome to the latest issue of the James Gillespie’s Project Newsletter. The new school is a City of Edinburgh Council project, delivered in partnership with Hub South East Scotland Limited. The project is part funded by the Scottish Government through their ‘Schools for the Future Programme’ which is managed by the Scottish Futures Trust. Morrison Construction have been appointed main contractor for the project. In this issue we are providing an update on: The High School Project Initial Works Pedestrian Route to Darroch The High School Project The works to build the new secondary school commenced on Monday, 28 October 2013. The project is being delivered in two phases with Phase 1 comprising the demolition of the existing school buildings that are in the hoarded area of the site and the construction of the new teaching block along the Lauderdale Street edge. Due to the way in which the project is funded, the new school is being built under a Design, Build, Finance and Maintain contract. This is a very complex contractual arrangement and it has taken longer than had been anticipated to ensure that all technical, legal and commercial issues were resolved which was necessary before the project could start. The project team has worked very hard to conclude these matters, however, this
position was only achieved in the last few weeks which has resulted in the start of the project having had to be put back from the previously planned start date of July 2013. The delay to the start date has had a consequential impact on the completion date; the fact that any decant can only be progressed over a school holiday period has also been a contributory factor in arriving at the revised programme to completion. The main teaching block will be completed to allow the school to decant into this around the school break in April 2015. Phase 2 of the project will then start which will involve: the removal of the temporary teaching accommodation from the site; the demolition of the Warrender, Spylaw and Thirlestane buildings; the relocation of the school’s temporary catering block; the construction of the new Sports and Expressive Arts buildings on the cleared areas; and the completion of the landscaping, including the new school car park. Over the next three years further work will be undertaken on the Grade A listed Bruntsfield House to complete its refurbishment. During this period the decant arrangements at Darroch will remain.
New James Gillespie’s School Campus Newsletter November 2013 The Phase 2 works will be completed in late July 2016 allowing the new facilities to be available from August 2016. Initial Works We are pleased to report that Morrison Construction have now commenced work on the main construction programme for the high school. One of the first tasks is to establish a new access for the project construction site off Lauderdale Street. To create this entrance some trees will need to be removed and replacement trees will be planted during Phase 2 of the project. The demolition works, due to start shortly, will be completed in early 2014. As with the construction works on the primary school site, close liaison will take place between the school and contractors to avoid disruption to pupils. Arrangements are in place to ensure no construction traffic arrives or leaves the site at the start and end of school day or at break or lunchtime. Information has also been provided to residents about the construction works. Route to Darroch To ensure pupils avoid the construction site entrances in Warrender Park Road and Lauderdale Street, all pupils travelling to and from Darroch have been asked to use Advisory route 1 during Phase 1 which is shown in the following plan.