MC Construction has announced the completion of a £9.5 million upgrade of a University of Manchester building. The project has taken the construction company two years and, the Samuel Alexander Building is the largest contract to be won by MC Construction in their entire 46-year history.
The Grade II listed building is the home of the University of Manchester’s School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. The building on Oxford Road in Manchester has been remodelled and refurbished. The work has been carried out across the building’s four wings, with work being carried out in phases in order to minimise disruption to staff and students at the University.
The scheme of works included refurbishing and expanding the office areas of the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures while also offering new language hubs and common rooms. The cafe located in the building has also been upgraded, as has the IT cluster, the Classics wing and one of the entrances. There has also been improvement works carried out in the courtyard with all services such as power, heating and lighting also replaced.
Much of the work at the Oxford Road site was scheduled in order to take place outside of term time, and when this was not possible, the contractors got to work early in order to make sure that any drilling or other noisy work that needs doing is carried out before the staff and students arrive at the location. There were a number of challenges carrying out this work in a live environment and it was essential that there was a great deal of planning carried out by delivery teams as well as a proactive and collaborative approach used by all those working on the project and hard work from the delivery teams.
The completion of this scheme will now boos MC Construction’s expertise in this area of the education and commercial, and allowing them to target other projects of the same size for developments in the future.
