Balfour Beatty seals start for £162m Edinburgh concert hall job

The deal was sealed after the Scottish Authorities stepped in with a £20m rescue bundle for the undertaking, which lastly strikes ahead greater than six years after first profitable planning.

Sir Robert McAlpine had initially been lined up for the job underneath a preconstruction deal signed 4 years in the past. However the contractor exited final spring when prices ballooned from the £45m first envisaged by architects Chipperfield and Reiach & Corridor.

Balfour Beatty was then introduced in underneath an early contractor involvement settlement to thrash out the construct technique for the tough city-centre website behind St Andrew Sq..

Commissioned by IMPACT Scotland, the landmark venue will give the Scottish Chamber Orchestra a everlasting dwelling and type a serious base for the Edinburgh Worldwide Pageant.

Render of the auditorium in Dunard Centre

The 1,000-seat corridor will function a posh double basement, five-storey metal body and complicated oak-panelled inside designed for world-class acoustics.

Work will ramp up within the coming weeks, with completion slated for 2029.

As a part of the works, Balfour Beatty will assemble a five-storey metal body with an envelope façade of pre-cast concrete panels. The high-quality inner finishes will embody bespoke stable oak panelling to the corridor to boost the acoustic expertise.

At its peak, the undertaking will make use of round 200 folks and help 5 new apprenticeships alongside a serious SME provide chain programme.

Nick Rowan, managing director for Balfour Beatty in Scotland, mentioned: “We’re proud to be entrusted with delivering what’s going to turn out to be a nationally important cultural venue within the coronary heart of Edinburgh and have labored meticulously to plan each stage of this complicated construct, from building logistics in a tightly constrained website, to the precision wanted to attain world-class acoustic efficiency.