An aerial view of the school

Hi all,
I have just been given a very nice aerial photograpgh of the school taken on a clear day in January showing the extent of work being undertaken on this phase.

If you click on it you can see a larger clearer version...

March 2011 work progressess...

New Art Block

I can't believe a month has gone by already!
Last month, what with the construction of the theatre happening so quickly, made this last months progress appear to be at a snail's pace but, rest assured, work is going on really well. The weather has been somewhat kinder and the cold that stopped the concreting has abated and work has moved forward.

A Carillion spokesman kindly enlightened me as to what has been happening...

Old Coal Hole

"The main steel frame and floor planks are now complete. The lecture theatre steel has been built.  Structural topping has been laid to the majority of the floor planks. Brickwork is under way to the ground floor areas, and SFS (structural framing system) has been installed to the higher floors. The ground floor slab has been cast to the science block, and the art classrooms.
 Installation of windows is about to commence along with containment for cables etc.
 The electricity cables have been lowered to the new entrances in Regis Road.
 On Tettenhall (The New Special School) the foundations have been cast to 50% of the area.  Main drainage has commenced from the rear of phase 2 to the Tettenhall Side of the Denise Lewis Gym.
 The re-grading of the football pitches has been carried out using the excavated material from the main building. The wet weather has stopped the installation of the land drainage to the pitches though and is waiting on dryer weather...."

Last saw light of day in 1955

So... as you can see it has been all go!

My thanks to Carillion for the update and allowing me to photograph the site from afar! Sadly, the downside of the progress is that there are now less and less vantage points to take good photographs!

Until next month....
Moriarty...
P.s. Heres a timelapse video of the temporary classrooms being installed ...

February and a new month starts - an update...

The new Theatre

Well quite a bit has happened since my last post. The builders have been blessed with reasonable weather and they have made the most of it!
Plenty of steel work has gone up on the structure adjacent to the main hall and only yesterday, (1st Feb 2011) they seemed to construct, what I believe is going to be, the new theatre in a matter of hours!

Old footie pitch by the tennis courts

Some of the walls have been constructed in the new build beside the old art rooms (now ICT) and if you were to walk around the back of the Denise Lewis Sports Hall (Down by the tennis courts) you can see a lot of excavation work has been happening in readiness for the work to start on the new Tettenhall Wood Special School.
So...all in all, work is moving on at quite a pace and hopefully any time lost during the bad snow before christmas will soon be made back up...

The old English staircase

New build adjacent to art and main corridor

Allegedly, europes largest mobile crane!

Temporary accomodation on top yard

 These other pix show work around the site and how the old school is changing. The new facades, shape and texture of the very fabric of the building is being brought bang up to date! Some may say its a change for the worse....some may disagree. As a pupil from the end of the sixties into the early seventies and having worked here since the millenium, I can hand on heart and say in my humble opinion this is good! The school may change but, time marches on and change is inevitable. We almost lost the school completely in 1998 so this is by far and away a better outcome...










Moriarty...