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Search for contractor as Armagh’s £25m college campus goes out to tender

Armagh’s new £25 million college campus plan has gone out to tender, Armagh I can reveal.

The Department of Finance is promoting the project, which will first see the demolition of buildings at Lonsdale Road and College Hill.

Prospective developers will have until 3pm on Friday, December 2, to submit their bids to deliver a “new fully serviced campus building”.

The Department will be prioritising ‘best value’ in terms of awarding the contract.

And, when awarded and on site, the contractor will be responsible for delivering the state-of-the-art campus to deadline.

It is the intention that the work should be completed within two-and-a-half years.

It was early in September that a planning application was submitted to Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council for consideration.

That is for the demolition of the existing SRC buildings at Lonsdale Road and College Hill and their replacement with a development mixed of three and four-storey buildings.

Also included is car and cycle parking areas, smoking shelters, as well as landscaping, boundary treatments and associated site works, and the provision of almost 300 photovoltaic solar panels to the roof.

The overall project is being led by the County Antrim-based consultants WYG Management Services Ltd. They were appointed in August 2015 as the integrated team for the construction of all three new campuses within the borough, with others proposed as Banbridge and Craigavon too.

The Armagh campus will stretch to in the region of 16,250 square metres.

Public consultation events have already been held earlier in the summer ahead of the project going out to tender.

The intention is for the Armagh campus to be operational by 2020, and it will be geared towards the provision of “world class professional and teachnical educational training”.

During the construction, students will be accommodated at other locations, including potentially the former St Brigid’s High School at Killylea Road.

Picture: An artist’s impression of the new SRC campus in Armagh.

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