Laing O'Rourke and Bam bag £120m-worth of Dorset college deals

Two firms are poised to share in £120m-worth of design-and-build work to redevelop two separate sites for Bournemouth and Poole College in Dorset.

CJ understands that Laing O'Rourke and BAM Construction are the first-stage tender victors for the North Road campus in Poole and the Lansdowne campus in Bournemouth respectively.

Work on site at Poole is due to start next April and completion will be phased over four years.

The new campus at Poole will span around 23,000m2 and include teaching space, accommodation blocks, a six-court sports hall, a performance theatre and an engineering faculty.

The present campus dates back to the 1950s and will be demolished. A project source said: "The current buildings don't meet 21st century requirements."

April 2009 is also the planned date for a start at the Lansdowne campus, with completion due in 2012.

The job entails around 15,000m2 of redevelopment and features the refurbishment of 5,000m2 of Grade II-listed buildings.

The source said: "Some of the buildings at Lansdowne date back 100 years and we don't want to lose them."

Both contractors have won the first-stage competition, and they now have to work up guaranteed maximum prices.

The source said: "In all probability they will both go on to win the full-blown contracts."

Both projects are still going through the funding process, but the college does not anticipate any problems with raising the cash.