Official works start on College refurbishment project

Newcastle based contractor SURGO Construction has been awarded a £3.2 million contract to deliver a major refurbishment project at South Tyneside College’s Westoe campus.

The works will see SURGO Construction remodel areas of the Westoe campus to include a dedicated Marine School building and entrance, refurbish existing facilities and construct new teaching areas. 

Official works started earlier this week and was marked today with a turf cutting ceremony.  When complete the project will enable South Tyneside College to continue with its vision for modern learning environments for the further education, higher education and maritime courses it offers.

Lindsey Whiterod, Principal and Chief Executive, South Tyneside College said:  “The appointment of SURGO Construction will help us achieve our goal of providing excellent teaching and learning facilities at South Tyneside College. 

“SURGO Construction excelled on many of the criteria set out in the tender, including their previous experience of similar schemes and commitment to sustainability.”

Late last year the College announced it had been successful in a bid to secure an Enhanced Renewal funding Grant (Phase 2) from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) for the works.

Jeff Alexander, Director at SURGO said:  “We are delighted to have been appointed by South Tyneside College for this latest project in their redevelopment process and to be given the opportunity to work once again with the College’s team.

“It is gratifying that once again our experience and competitiveness has been recognised and we will be pulling out all of the stops to ensure that the success of this productive working relationship is continued.”

Mike Foggon, Regional Director at Faithful+Gould’s Newcastle office, who heads up the project team, said:  “We have been working with the College on their upgrading works delivering quantity surveying, project management, and CDM-C services for the last two years and I am pleased that SURGO Construction has been appointed to complete the next phase of the scheme.

“Following the highly successful completion of the last refurbishment phase in 2011, I am confident that this established team will deliver the College’s vision to provide state of the art educational facilities.”