The contract to build Port Glasgow's £44 million Shared Campus has been awarded to Graham Construction.

The new building will be home to Port Glasgow High and St Stephen's High Schools and a new Additional Support Needs (ASN) School to replace Glenburn and Lilybank Schools.

Graham Construction has a significant track record in building new schools around Scotland and is currently working on the £25 million Coltness High School in Lanarkshire and the £11.9 million Aviemore community school in the Highlands, among others.

Education and Lifelong Learning Convener Councillor, Terry Loughran, said: "The clock really is ticking on this project and every day is now a day towards the new shared campus becoming reality.

"There has been a huge amount of work and effort to get a project of this size to this stage and I am delighted we can now look forward to the prospect of seeing this exciting new campus take shape at Slaemuir."


Contracts Director at Graham Construction, Gary Holmes, commented: "This is a tremendously important project and we are looking forward to starting work on the new shared campus at Port Glasgow. On completion in 2013, the new school will be a highly-valued community resource and we are confident it will be warmly welcomed by both staff and pupils."

Port Glasgow High School and St Stephen's High School will move into the new state-of-the-art campus in August 2013.

Both schools will retain their separate identities. Some classrooms will be shared and both schools, as well as the Additional Support Needs School, will be linked to the central hub.

Leisure facilities include a Multi Use Games Area (MUGA), fully equipped fitness suite and gymnasium and two all weather pitches.

These will be available for community use. The ASN School will have a play area and its own smaller MUGA.

The project has been managed by the School Estate Team and Designed by a multi disciplinary Team led by Ingenium Archial Ltd as Architects and Lead consultant assisted by Buro Happold Mechanical & Electrical Engineers, Watermans, Civil & Structural Engineers, Turner & Townsend Quantity Surveyors and Cost Managers and TGP Landscape Architects.

(JG/BMcC)