ISG Jackson redevelops Linton Village College for Cambridgeshire County Council
(12/01/2010)

During the early stages of the redevelopment of Linton Village College for Cambridgeshire County Council, archaeologists uncovered a wide range of artefacts from the Neolithic period and Roman era. Grave goods, human burials and a complete horse skeleton had to be carefully recovered from the site before construction work could commence.

ISG Jackson has now completed a £3.7 million project to carry out the first phase of the redevelopment of Linton Village College. The contractor has built a new gymnasium and three-storey teaching accommodation block, alongside a single-storey drama studio on the site of the college’s former Information and Communication Technology (ICT) suite.

The new building was designed specifically to form a link between existing buildings within the college grounds, providing an extension to the sports centre, Technology Block and Music Block. New facilities include a food technology laboratory and offices on the ground floor, with seven science laboratories across the upper two levels, which also feature glazed observation galleries into the new gymnasium building.

Featuring two multi-purpose indoor courts, the gymnasium has large male and female changing areas and a storage area for games equipment. Externally, a covered walkway area leading to the college's commemorative memorial garden has also been created using pre-tensile fabric canopies, which project from the new building's façade.

Ian Gifford, director of ISG Jackson's Public division, commented: "The successful completion of this challenging project is testament to the flexible working approach and strong relationships forged by the site team with key stakeholders. The complexities of a highly restricted location, close to a busy nursery, as well as the rich archaeological nature of the site proved logistically challenging, yet the site team maintained excellent relationships with both the nursery and College throughout the project.

“Feedback from the nursery in particular was full of praise for the responsiveness and excellent levels of communication demonstrated by the site team during the construction process. Our health & safety department were on hand to provide site safety talks to the children and donated a number of high visibility vests to the nursery. Positive engagement with the College included the organisation of a number of football matches, pitting the site team against staff and pupils.”