Building Briefs – April 20th

Glasgow’s George Square is to be transformed into a stunning arena with three football pitches and seating for 3,500 spectators when it plays host to the Homeless World Cup later this year.

From 10-16 July a total of 48 men’s and 16 women’s sides will participate in a week-long celebration in the heart of the city, which for the duration aims to be the “most inspiring place on the planet”.

It is expected that about 100,000 supporters will attend the tournament. In addition to each of the pitches, there will be space for music, merchandise and more.

Adapting George Square is a complicated process, given a number of historic monuments and the city’s Cenotaph, which will be fully respected in the course of creating the event.

The tournament takes place in Scotland as part of a three way partnership between the Homeless World Cup Foundation and principle funders, the Scottish Government and Glasgow Life.

Work continues on £4m visitor centre at Pitlochry Dam

Work on a new £4 million visitor centre at Pitlochry dam is ‘progressing well’, SSE has announced.

The new Perthshire centre will house a 60-seat cafe, a retail area and a multi-space area for educational use once completed.

In addition, a main exhibition space will be created showcasing accounts from engineers who worked to build the dam over 70 years ago.

SSE said anyone who worked on various Scottish hydro schemes during the 1940s, 60s or 60s, or who lived near a construction project/worker’s camp, should get in contact with SSE.

The new facility is on schedule to be opened this autumn.

Network Rail opens £2m road bridge in central Scotland

A new £2 million road bridge has opened in central Scotland.

The Drumgrew Road bridge reopened on 15 April following an eight-month reconstruction programme.

The project is part of a series of schemes to create extra height beneath bridges to allow overhead power cables to be installed as part of the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP).

The bridges opening marks 59 out of 61 structures completed as part of the EGIP clearance works.

In addition to significant utilities diversions and reinstatement works, the project involved demolishing an existing masonry arch structure over a single weekend in October, strengthening the bridge abutments and reconstructing the deck and parapets before reconnecting the new bridge to the road network.

Councillors asked to approve Dundee homes tender

A near £10 million project to provide 81 affordable homes on the site of former multis in Dundee will move forward next week when the local authority discusses tenders for the development.

A report to the city council’s neighbourhood services committee on April 25 outlines tenders received for the joint Hillcrest Housing Association and Dundee City Council development on the land where there multi-storey blocks at Alexander Street were demolished.

Councillors will be asked to approve a tender for the council’s contribution at £4,622,720 for Hart Builders. The total project cost would be just over £9,500,000 and work would start this summer.

The council’s part of the 81-home project would provide 33 units consisting of 10/2-bedroom, 8/3-bedroom and 2/4-bedroom houses, there will also be 9/2-bedroom flats and 4 wheelchair units (2/3-bedroom, 2/4-bedroom).

2500-home Elgin South draft masterplan approved

Councillors have approved a draft masterplan for a major new residential development on the southern edge of Elgin.

The blueprint will see around 2500 houses built over the next three decades, along with two primary schools, a sports centre, a range of retail and community facilities and a cemetery.

The overall development by local company Springfield Properties will take the form of three linked villages to be known as Linkwood, Easter Linkwood and Wester Linkwood.

Members of Moray Council’s planning and regulatory services committee were told that the site extends to more than 200 hectares and represented a significant long-term expansion of Elgin.

A report to the committee said: “The masterplanning of large development areas reflects the Scottish Government’s commitment to raise urban design standards, which Moray Council supports.”

It said the vision for Elgin South was to create a fully accessible, high quality community which would fit into the landscape setting.

The draft masterplan will go out to consultation, part of which will involve a drop-in exhibition.

Bounce back in refurb market boosts Travis Perkins

A recovery in the RMI market helped boost sales by 5 per cent during the first quarter of 2016 at builders’ merchant Travis Perkins.

In a trading update this morning the firm reported like-for-like sales growth across all divisions during the period.

Public invited to shape vision for regeneration of ‘Britain’s most beautiful shortcut’

Scottish Canals and Argyll and Bute Council are inviting the public to help shape the future of the Crinan Canal Corridor.

A series of collaborative design workshops, known as a ‘charrette,’ will run from the 27th to the 30th of April, with the local community, stakeholders and relevant agencies asked to work together to create a shared vision for the canal corridor and the communities on its banks.

Supported by technical experts and designers, it’s hoped the sessions will generate a number of ideas and proposals to help maximise the tourism, leisure and business opportunities offered by the canal and ensure the long-term future of Ardrishaig, Crinan and Lochgilphead. The results of the four-day event will be showcased in an exhibition held on the final day.

Taking place in Lochgilphead, Ardrishaig and Cairnbaan, the workshops form part of #CanalMagic – a public programme supported by the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design – which celebrates the innovation, heritage and economic value of Scotland’s canals by encouraging cyclists, runners, walkers, boaters, canalside communities and local businesses to record what the nation’s inland waterways mean to them.

Full information on the Crinan Corridor charrette programme can be found at http://bit.ly/CrinanCorridor.