Steel starts for Ulster church scheme

The Green Pastures Church is rapidly taking shape on the outskirts of the Northern Ireland town of Ballymena.

The large and imposing steel-framed structure, set within a 96-acre site, will comprise a main 1,600-capacity auditorium, sports hall, classrooms, meeting spaces, crèche, a gym, café, offices, a fitness studio, wedding and reception venue, as well as a large car park.

According to a Green Pastures spokesperson, the Church is only one phase of its mini-village project. A nearby row of houses for disadvantaged people has already been built, and future plans will eventually see a number of other facilities built on the site including youth training workshops and retail units.

Construction of the church got under way last year with an enabling works package that included installing drainage and preparing the plot for the building by levelling the sloping ground.

Locally-based contractor Martin & Hamilton (M&H) started on site during July and began by installing pad foundations in readiness for the steel frame to be erected.

Steelwork contractor Walter Watson is fabricating, supplying and erecting 840t structural steel for the project.