Balfour and RM win Ealing schools contract

19th Apr 2010 07:48

Contractor Balfour Beatty has made its fourth contract win announcement of the month, with the award this time being for an Ealing schools project.Ealing Council has appointed Balfour Beatty as a preferred bidder for the council's £300m public-private partnership (PPP) Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.The BSF programme in Ealing entails the delivery of upgrades and extensions to 14 of the borough's schools, plus the building of a new school in North Greenford as well as a major overhaul of the information communications technology (ICT) in three other schools. The ICT services will be delivered in partnership with education IT specialist RM Group.Work on the first phase of building will start in October of this year. All construction work is scheduled to be completed by 2014.Balfour Beatty will invest equity of £3.8m into the delivery of the first sample school, Dormers Wells, with the potential for a total of up to £11.8m equity investment in the 25-year concession as a whole.RM Group said delivery of a limited set of ICT services for 15 existing schools will kick off in January 2011, with a full service offering scheduled to kick in during April 2012.The project is expected to be worth £39m to RM Group.