Balfour Beatty, the British multinational infrastructure group has been selected as the main contractor for a project which is considered to be the largest capital developments to be undertaken in the UK by a university.

The construction company has a wealth of experience working on projects in the education sector, and will be able to put all of the specialist knowledge that has been developed by the company into this milestone project that will combine all of the Manchester University sites into one site. The contract that has been signed by Balfour Beatty has been valued at £287 million.

The University of Manchester has have contracted the British company to complete the construction of the new Manchester Engineering Campus Development. This new education facility is expected to take four years and is a part of a wider scheme of works that will take place over the course of approximately 10 years. The new Manchester Engineering Campus Development will offer new premises for the university’s engineering schools. These facilities will include teaching spaces as well as space for research institutes.

In order to complete this significant construction project in four years, Balfour Beatty will be looking to make the most of offsite construction solutions. It has been predicted however, that even with the utilisation of offsite production there will still be up to around 1,000 construction and tradespeople on site during the development. As well as using off site manufacturing, the project will use the latest BIM technology in order to ensure that the project is being carried out in the most efficient way possible. It is hoped that when the development is complete, new way of educating the future generation of engineers will be created. The result will hopefully be a world-class estate that will be beneficial to the students as well as the staff and visitors to the campus.