Leisure, Healthcare & Communal Buildings

Excavation work on the site of Wolverhampton City Council’s leisure centre in Bilston is well underway.

Main contractor Shepherd Construction is shifting 10,000 cubic metres of soil – enough to fill around 90 double decker buses – as the site is re-shaped prior to work starting on the building’s foundations.

All the excavated soil is being recycled, with 6,000 cubic metres being donated to Wolverhampton City Council’s Bowmans Harbour project, where it will be used to form attenuation ponds. The remaining soil is being used to help in the landscaping of the new South Wolverhampton & Bilston Academy adjacent to the leisure centre.

The soil recycling is part of the sustainability plan during building work on the new 5,600m2 leisure centre, which is scheduled to open in summer 2011 and will comprise an eight-lane, 25m swimming pool, a learner pool, a health and fitness suite, four squash courts, a sports hall, cafe and a meeting room.

It will replace the existing leisure centre in Bilston and will be the first permanent building of a £175 million urban village project.

Peter Millett, managing director for Shepherd Construction’s West Division, said: “The site is now taking shape as work progresses at a rate of knots. Once the excavation work is complete, we’ll move onto the foundations programme and will be looking to commence steelwork on the leisure centre this autumn.”

Councillor Paddy Bradley, Wolverhampton City Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, added: “I am delighted that the work on the new leisure centre is progressing well.

“The people of Bilston and the surrounding areas have a fantastic new leisure centre to look forward to. It will be a state of-the-art leisure facility which will meet the needs and aspirations of the whole community and which will form an integral part of the new Bilston Urban Village.”

www.shepherd-construction.co.uk