Building Briefs – May 19th

Luxury Abbotsford House suites take shape

Glasgow-based construction firm CCG has said it is making good progress at Abbotsford House Luxury Suites, a care home development being delivered for Morrison Community Care Group.

Located just off Craigton Road in Milngavie, the luxury facility will provide personal and bespoke services to residents offering 45 state of the art private suites, 4 restaurants, private gardens and its very own cinema.

CCG has been on site since January of this year and began the installation of the building’s superstructure at the start of April. Thanks to the use of CCG’s enhanced closed panel timber system, manufactured ‘Off-Site’ in the company’s bespoke factory, CCG OSM, the entire building will be fully wind and water tight before the end of May, a construction period of just nine weeks.

CCG Director, Calum Murray, commented: “The progress made at Abbotsford House Luxury Suites is truly outstanding – our site team has done an excellent job in bringing the development together in such a quick period of time.

The advantages of ‘Off-Site’ construction are there to be seen with excellent quality and energy efficiency standards. In addition, by being able to build faster, we have minimised disruption and the impact on the local community.”

CCG said it is on course to deliver the development in November.

Perth City Hall plans to be revealed

The public will soon get its first glimpse of how Perth City Hall could be reinvented as a major cultural attraction.

Charles Kinnoull, chairman of Culture Perth and Kinross, has revealed the designs by the five shortlisted architect firms will go on public display in the city centre in early June.

“They are five very different visions but I personally think all of them have visual appeal,” he said.

Construction isn’t just a job for the boys

Pupils from Williamwood, St Ninians, Woodfarm and St Luke’s High Schools in East Renfrewshire recently attended a workshop designed to inspire girls to consider construction as a career.

Held at BAM Construction’s Barrhead High School project and hosted by BAM’s community manager Claire Anderson and assistant site manager Lewis MacMillan, the event provided details of the different careers available in construction, an insight into a typical day of a Site Manager and a tour of an operational building site.

Mr MacMillan said: “Pupils are always surprised when they hear of all the opportunities available to them within the construction industry and combined with a tour of a live site, it leaves them feeling quite inspired which we hope will start to break down the historic barriers to girls coming into the industry.”

Bruce Dickson, regional director for BAM, added: “We are very active in trying to address the lack of diversity in the construction industry and I see this as a huge challenge that we have to win. Arguably this is even the answer to the looming skills crisis given the relatively low numbers of women still entering the industry. Events like this one allow us to showcase a modern, progressive, technically advanced and safe industry that is far removed from many people’s preconceived ideas.”

Located on Aurs Road next to the existing school, the new 900 pupil Barrhead High was designed as a ‘school of the future’.

It also includes comprehensive community facilities which will be open to the public outside school hours.

The building represents a £29.7m investment and BAM Construction is delivering the new building in partnership with Hub West on behalf of East Renfrewshire Council.

BAM Construction is one of Scotland’s leading contractors, providing a high quality service from its offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh for over 50 years. The company is currently building the new V & A Museum of Design in Dundee.

Million pound investment set for Aberdeen play parks

Work valued at more than £1.2 million for improvements to play parks throughout Aberdeen is to go for approval from local councillors next week.

The authority’s infrastructure committee will meet for the first time since the election on Wednesday to rule on the proposals.

Along with £450,000 already allocated for this year, the council is looking to plough an additional £826,000 into the parks throughout the Granite City.

Among the areas targeted will be Cults skate park, Cove playing field, Stewart park, Westfield park and Westburn skate park.

But a report to councillors has warned that, due to the scale of the work, there are not enough council staff to complete it within a year. It has recommended hiring more workers.

M73 northbound closed for one weekend

The M73 northbound is to close from junction 1 Maryville to junction 2 Baillieston for a full weekend as part of the M8 M73 M74 Motorway Improvements Project.

This will be from 8pm on Friday 19 May until 6am on Monday 22 May.

This means there will be no access from the M74 northbound to the M73 northbound from junction 4 Maryville. There is already no access from the M74 southbound to the M73 northbound after the link road was closed on 15 May for around three weeks.

Signed diversions will be in place from M74 northbound or southbound to the M73 via junction 5 Raith, A725 northbound to Shawhead junction and A8 westbound to Bargeddie roundabout for access to Baillieston roundabout and M8 westbound or M73 northbound.

The closure is for surfacing works and installation of motorway gantries.