Engineering campus set for University of Manchester

Balfour Beatty has been formally awarded the £287M contract by The University of Manchester to construct the Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD).

The four-year project forms an essential part of the University of Manchester’s 10-year campus master plan to create a world-class estate benefitting staff, students and visitors.

The MECD will provide a state-of-the-art facility, housing the University’s engineering schools, innovative teaching spaces and research institutes such as the Dalton Nuclear Institute and the BP- International Centre for Advanced Materials.

It will consolidate the majority of the University’s estate onto one main campus, creating a more compact and coherent infrastructure that reduces the institution’s carbon footprint and costs.

The MECD will also free up considerable land holdings in the north of the campus, contributing to the future economic success of the city with redevelopment opportunities in a prime city centre location.

Once completed, the facility will benefit from ‘green’ construction measures resulting in smart energy consumption and advanced water recycling and waste systems.

The development will host a wide range of flexible hi-specification laboratories and lecture spaces to welcome up to 7,000 students and 1,300 staff. MECD will also incorporate blended learning facilities, workshops and a ‘maker space’ where students will see their engineering creations come to life.

Balfour Beatty Managing Director, UK Construction Services, Dean Banks said: “We are delighted to have been appointed to construct the MECD, one of the largest single developments ever undertaken by a higher education institution in the UK.

“We have extensive expertise in the higher education sector having delivered schemes such as the Holyrood postgraduate village at the University of Edinburgh, The Diamond building for the Engineering Faculty of the University of Sheffield, and the Foundry Courtyard Student Accommodation Complex in Glasgow.”