Work continues on the £6 million expansion of The Boulevard Academy, which will increase capacity in response to a growing demand for places, as well as enable it to offer a range of new courses from September 2022.
The Boulevard Academy on Massey Close, west Hull welcomed its first pupils in September 2013. The school, which famously occupies the site of Hull FC’s former Boulevard ground, was initially built to accommodate 600 students aged 11 to 16. But now, as the local population grows, we’re building a three-storey extension, creating an additional 300 places for students, taking the total capacity to 900.
Progress so far
The Boulevard Academy extension has visually accelerated over the last two months. The school hosted a news bulletin, where student reporters broke the news that topping out of the school extension had been achieved. Topping out is traditionally when a building receives its roof covering. We gave the reporters a topping out ceremony tour of the building and all had great fun in the process! The broadcast went out live across the school in celebration, this brings the project team yet one step closer to successful completion. The topping out broadcast can be viewed further below.
February and March have introduced; brickwork, internal partitioning, intumescent paint coating on the steel structure, and the start of many follow-on trades to enable works to continue across April and May. The sunshine in abundance has given the bricklaying team from Cara Brickwork Ltd, the perfect platform to produce some real quality brickwork, all in line with our construction program.
Likewise, Jumbo building systems Ltd has been installing the partition walls with precision and accuracy across the three floors of the school extension. The partitioning walls will separate all corridors and classrooms, provide fire compartments in line with the fire strategy and incorporate acoustic dampening to control sound levels in areas like the music classrooms and music practice rooms.
Briggs Amasco, our roofing contractor, has also completed the roofing membrane, the fitting and weatherproofing of the six roof windows, and a large proportion of the man safe system. The Parapet roof capping now awaits and installation of the air handling unit will follow imminently.
Next on the agenda is the commencement of the windows, rain-screen cladding, and curtain walling package, which will commence following the completion of the brickwork package.
Elevation Scaffolding will be returning back to the first section of their erected tube and clamp scaffolding and focusing efforts on dismantling the steel access structure appreciated by Bricklayers and health and safety inspectors alike. The scaffolding erection went up like clockwork, and I’m sure will be dismantled in the same manner, showing off the brickwork created by Cara Brickwork Ltd, led on-site by supervisor Ronnie. This will release ground access for mobile elevated working platforms to install glazing to newly fitted window frames.
April will welcome the partition walls receiving both wooden patressing where required, and plaster boarding on both sides. Starting from the second floor and working in a top-down sequence, a plaster finish can then be applied to all plaster boarding below the finished ceiling height.
Mechanical and Electrical works will all naturally intertwine; electrical first fixes are well underway for power, data, lighting, lightning protection, CCTV and fire alarm system. These accompany the mechanical first fixes of ventilation ducting, hot and cold water feeds, heating, and gas pipework.
We’ll be looking forward to The Boulevard Academy School creating some fantastic ‘STEAM’ artwork…watch this space! The lucky imaginative few will receive one of a handful of prizes up for grabs!
The Topping out ceremony video:
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