FMP delivers £70m schools’ project

Three major construction firms from Northern Ireland have collaborated to deliver a series of schools in a contract worth £70m in the Scottish Western Isles.

Farrans, H&J Martin and Patton, working under the joint-venture name of FMP, beat off stiff competition to win the construction contract for six schools as part of the Western Isles Schools Project (WISP) funded by the Scottish Government.

In the past seven years FMP has won around £350m of business including work on 45 educational facilities. The latest contract represents the single biggest ever capital project on the Western Isles.

The WISP generated £35million for the local economy and at its peak 300 jobs were created throughout the construction project with over 3,500 site inductions across the new school sites.

Grant Robinson, Managing Director of FMP said: “The WISP contract represents a significant piece of business for FMP. Given the experience of this team we were always confident in our abilities to deliver a project of this magnitude.

“ It has been a challenging and rewarding series of projects to manage as working on an island created significant access and logistical barriers, while the weather conditions forced us to halt work on a number of occasions.”

Work on the schools which comprised a mix of new-build and refurbishment began two years ago. Each of the six schools has been designed to meet BREEAM Excellent accreditation, one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building's environmental performance.

Combined, the six schools have provided over 28,000 m2 of facility floor space and will accommodate over almost 2,000 pupils in pre-school, primary and secondary education.