Nescot Skills Park and Built Environment Centre

Covering three phases of work, we upgraded the North East Surrey College of Technology (NESCOT) in Epsom and Ewell. A combination of major refurbishment and new build works in a live campus environment brought its challenges, but the result was an end to end construction without disruption.

Key to building this successfully was working efficiently in the middle of a busy campus full of students and staff going about their daily activites. Our team used our 'live environment' plan to ensure disruption was kept to a minimum and we sequenced work around major events, like exam time.

We developed our programme in line with the customer's operational one and scoped our works accordingly. Some specific elements were flagged as being required to be 'agile', where the college may not be able to give up space on a very short notice. Once identified, we could manage delivery of these specific elements with very little risk of it impacting our overall programme.

Consistent liaison with the college, using a combination of 4D planning and the 'live environment' approach, meant that we were able to suitably plan the logistics around their preferred movements. Reviewing every potential interaction, all safety risks were reviewed and mitigated.

The works themselves comprised a major remodelling and recladding of an existing building as part of phases 1 and 2. Phase 3 was the construction of two new buildings for the college. The first building is a Skills Park, which is the new reception and main entrance for the college and incorporates a new hair and beauty salon, kitchen, restaurant and staff facilities, including offices. It is the "face" of NESCOT College, with an eye-catching design to make it a landmark building in Epsom. Our second facility, the Built Environment building, provides facilities for construction trade learning at the college, with specialist facilities and workshops for training electrical, plumbing, carpentry, brickwork and plastering.

Sustainability

The project was procured through Scape's Major Works framework, which includes stringent community KPI requirements. Highlights include;

• average Considerate Contractor Score of 40
• 286 apprentice weeks were worked
• 100% of apprentices who worked on the project progressed into employment
• 374 school / college workshops were held
• 80 work experience weeks were worked
• 407 school / college site visits took place

The team also helped support the local pound with 86% of labour sourced within 40 miles of the project and 84% of spend within 40 miles.

There were numerous sustainable initiatives, including:

• excess materials were donated to the college for use by students;
• timber and pallets were collected for recycling;
• logs were donated to local community following tree removal;
• 97% of waste was diverted from landfill.

Both buildings achieves an “Excellent” BREEAM rating!