Milestones, collaborations and foundations

At Shufflebottom, we are proud to share the news that we have been selected as official partner and subcontractor to Bouygues UK in the delivery of the £35 million development of Pencoedtre High School, Barry.

Bouygues UK is an international and award-winning construction company, working in education, healthcare, housing and major development sectors across the UK and Europe. As such, it is the preferred choice of the Welsh Government and the Vale of Glamorgan County Council to be part of Wales’ £23 billion Twenty-First Century Schools initiative, with the construction of a new school for Pencoedtre in Barry.

The Pencoedtre High School project is one of scale and significance, designed to create a brand new three-storey school building, consisting of a main hall, dining hall, courtyard, 6th-form area, state-of-the art all-weather sports pitches and games court, as well as performance spaces. In total, 130,000 sq. ft. of buildings on the existing school site at Barry will be built, which will create “a community school aiming for excellence by learning together and growing together”, to quote the school website.

The foundations have been dug and the first concrete poured and now we at Shufflebottom are using Building Information Modelling (BIM) to manufacture the structural steelwork for the main framework of the buildings. We are on course to deliver 650 tonnes in August 2020 and play our part in the completion of a project “Built by Bouygues” by July 2022.

This project illustrates not only a significant financial investment by national and local government, but an investment in the wider sense in terms of people, skills and the economy. Not only are we working together with Bouygues UK, but “growing together” too - sharing our companies’ values and ethos. To that end, we are delighted that, through this contract, Bouygues UK is enabling us at Shufflebottom’s to further develop our training and apprenticeships programmes.

This is showcased on the ground, by the inspirational stories of two young and ambitious members of our team, Dale Lloyd and Kurtis Richards. They are committed to developing their careers with us, as we are with them, and are enhancing their training as we manufacture this structural steelwork for Bouygues.

This is the first time we have been contracted by Bouygues UK, so it is a significant milestone for us. We hope this project will be the start of a long-term relationship and trust that Bouygues UK will see the quality of our work and return to us time and time again.