YMCA in Bradford takes Yorkshire’s BAM to £50 million in Bradford
Hemel Hempstead, 27 September 2011 - The firm behind the £5.2 million Culture Fusion project in Bradford is preparing to hand over the new building to the YMCA for use by the area’s young people. The project – located on Thornton Road – takes turnover by design and build contractor BAM Construction to over £50 million from its last seven projects built in Bradford. These include three schools, a university facility, Bradford Academy, a college and two community buildings.
The 3,160 square-metre Culture Fusion building took BAM just one year to build, and currently it is estimated will generate a low carbon footprint of less than nine tonnes of CO2 per million pounds in value, well below the company’s already demanding target of 14 tonnes.
Work has been undertaken to refurbish and extend a former warehouse building including new mechanical and electrical installations, and replacing existing floors and the roof.
The project deliberately set a plan to involve young people and the BAM team has so far contributed over 200 man hours to projects involving over 250 young people around Bradford. This has included such things as children’s art and photography projects, site visits, history, involvement in the design and work on site as apprentices.
Jonathan Conway, who project managed the Culture Fusion building, said: ‘This is the third project in Bradford I’ve worked on after the Academy and the College, and we’ve been so closely involved with young people as a part of the build. I’m delighted to say that the scheme is also on time and built to budget.’
James Wimpenny, Director of BAM North East, said: ‘We’ve been very active in Bradford, and across Yorkshire, for many years, and for us, a new building marks a great opportunity to work with the communities where many of us and our suppliers also live. The most satisfying thing about construction is what the new buildings bring to an area socially and economically.’
Nearly 90% of orders of £35,000.- or above for the project were placed with sub-contractors within the Yorkshire area, the largest, worth over one million pounds for mechanical and electrical works, was placed with a Bradford firm, Southern and Redfern Building Services.
BAM completes Culture Fusion towards the end of October. Among its other projects in Yorkshire it is at work on the Leeds Arena.
Further information: Mark Slattery, press and media manager, BAM Construct UK Ltd, 01442 238415.