A digital impression of the completed Manchester Engineering Campus Development. Credit: © Balfour Beatty.

Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty has secured a contract worth £287m from the University of Manchester in the UK to construct the Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD).

This four-year project forms a key part of the university’s ten year Campus Masterplan and will support new research.

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MECD will house the university’s engineering schools, teaching spaces, the Dalton Nuclear Institute, and the BP- International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM).

The construction will include a variety of environmentally friendly designs, including smart energy consumption and advanced water recycling and waste systems.

“[The new building] will host several flexible hi-specification laboratories, as well as lecture spaces for up to 7,000 students and 1,300 staff.”

It will host several flexible hi-specification laboratories, as well as lecture spaces for up to 7,000 students and 1,300 staff.

MECD will also incorporate blended learning facilities, workshops, and a ‘maker space’ for students, aiming to consolidate the majority of the university’s estate onto a single main campus.

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Balfour Beatty’s construction services managing director Dean Banks said: “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 for the University of Sheffield, and the Foundry Courtyard Student Accommodation Complex in Glasgow.”

At peak construction, the project is expected to employ a workforce of 1,000 and also create new job opportunities for unemployed local people through the university’s Construction Academy.

The university appointed Balfour Beatty to its construction partnering framework in May 2015.

Since November 2015, the company has been working under a pre-construction services agreement, enabling design development and early engagement with key supply chain partners.