This Easter, the works to provide a new primary school building at Heyford Park School in Upper Heyford north Oxfordshire, start on site. This is always an exciting time for us! It’s the culmination of several years of work for us and our colleagues in adjacent disciplines, while also being the start of a new team when the contractor joins us for the scheme. Luckily, the contractor for this scheme is Edgar Taylor Construction, who we have worked with on a number of projects, and we already have an excellent working relationship with.

The first challenge will be when we actually start digging, often a point in a project that can throw up unexpected challenges. On this site potentially more than most, as Upper Heyford was originally established as a military base first for the RAF and then the United States Air Force. Our site, thankfully, isn’t within the actually bombing practice ranges and it has all been surveyed and planned for, with toolbox talks for the contractor, but this adds a bit of different spin to those first few weeks.

We’ll continue to update as this scheme progresses.