The new Nicolson Institute in Stornoway was handed over by the Irish contractors to the Scottish facilities manager on Monday ahead of the new school term on August 16.
With a school roll of 1,100 pupils, the new Nicolson Institute is the largest secondary school in the islands and is adjacent to the existing site on Springfield Road in Stornoway.
While the old school consisted of several buildings spread over a large, disjointed campus, the new school, a snip at a capital construction cost of £29 million, is a single new-build providing more than 13,500 sq metres of floor space. The campus also includes the retained C-listed Pentland Building and the B-listed Matheson Hall which have been extensively upgraded and refurbished to provide Craft Design and Technology and Information and Communication Technology facilities – the ICT hub will also provide centralised services to all schools in the Western Isles.
A second phase of works, to demolish the old school and build a bus and car park as well as a full-size grass pitch, will begin in mid-August for completion in January 2013.
The new Nicolson Institute is the fifth of the six schools in the £125 million Western Isles Schools Project (WISP) to be handed over on time and budget following Point, Balivanich and West Side Primary Schools as well as the first phase of the Sir E Scott School in Tarbert.
Councillor Norman A MacDonald, the comhairle convener and chair of Sgoiltean Ùra, said: “We are delighted that FMP [the main contractor] have maintained their 100% success rate in the delivery of the new schools. All of the schools have been delivered on time and on budget and is a testament to their collaborative working methods and demonstrates that even in remote locations such as the Western Isles, joint project delivery and a desire to succeed can deliver real achievements.”
Cllr Angus Campbell, the leader of the comhairle, added: “The new Nicolson Institute is the largest single part of the hugely successful new schools programme. I am confident that these new schools will demonstrate that putting quality education in quality buildings will allow us to enhance our tremendous record of the highest educational attainment right across these islands.”
Sgoiltean Ùra is the Special Purpose Vehicle established to design, procure, build and maintain the schools on behalf of the comhairle. Faithful + Gould are retained by Sgoiltean Ùra to provide project management and cost consultancy advice. FMP is a joint venture entity comprising three Irish contractors Farrans, H&J Martin and Patton. Stirling-based FES FM Ltd is the facilities management contractor which will maintain all the WISP schools until 2039.
The design team comprises 3DReid (Architects), Goodson (Civil and Structural), Wallace Whittle (M&E) and TGP Landscape Architects.
