The £24m contract will see Bam build a three-storey teaching block, to be ready by September 2023.
The new building, going up alongside the existing school, is designed to be net zero carbon in operation.
On completion of the new building, the old school will be pulled down and that part of the site converted to sports pitches. Full completion is expected in spring 2024.
The project will increase Fred Longworth capacity from 1,275 pupils to 1,350.
Bam is handling the architecture, M&E, sustainability and fit-out in-house, while Hydrock is providing fire and acoustics services and Dally Henderson is doing the landscape design.
Bam got the contract through the Department for Education’s high value framework. Construction issues include creating a new overlay on an existing campus while it remains live, retaining three existing buildings, placing emphasis on sequencing. The scheme builds on the DfE’s new approach to sustainability, further developing innovation and methods from the initial pathfinder projects. The school will in part be constructed over Hindsford Brook culvert. Enabling works include diverting a main sewer running across the site an getting rid of Japanese knotweed.
There is also restricted access to site so Bam has to coordinate logistics, with fewer delivery vehicles and more storage space on site.
Bam Construction regional director Ian Fleming said: “We have a very strong track record in the education sector across the UK and here in the northwest, where we have delivered education facilities serving some 7,000 students over the past five years alone.
“Our ability to create net zero schools and use modern techniques such as our suite of digital construction methods and off-site manufacture and assembly allows us to reduce risks to our people and speed up delivery for the school.”
Fred Longworth is one of four Wigan schools earmarked for redevelopment under the DfE’s £1bn School Rebuilding Programme.
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