Lift subcontract with Portakabin to begin Spring 2016

Curti Lifts has won the lift subcontract for the Riverside Schools project, the UK’s largest ever contract for a modular school campus. The campus will include three schools and a nursery, including a secondary school, a primary school and a special needs school. The £44 million project, won by Portakabin, will see the company working with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham for the seventh time.

Riverside Schools campus was designed by Surface to Air.  The secondary school will offer 1,800 places, the primary school will offer 630 places, and the nursery 55 places. The schools will be constructed off site, in York, utilising building modules and components manufactured by Yorkon. The 387 steel framed modules will then be transported to the final East London location via crane. The largest of the modules will weigh more than 20 tonnes, and will be 18.75m long.

The installation will take place in two phases.  When the campus is complete, it will have a capacity suitable for approximately 2,700 children in total, in roomy 75 square meter classrooms. Curti Lifts will be providing and installing three lifts for the project.

Portakabin is set to begin construction on the 23,000sqm campus in spring of 2016. Groundworks at the site will take place concurrently with the assembly of the modules offsite. This method of modular construction will greatly reduce the time it will take to complete the project. The primary school as well as the special needs school will be completed in the first stage of the project, and are anticipated to be opened for the start of the 2016/2017 school year.  The remaining buildings are slated for completion in the spring of 2017.

Curti Lifts has worked closely with Portakabin in the past.  The companies are both experienced with expansive projects of this nature, and those that have tight deadlines.  For example, Curti Lifts worked with Portakabin as the lift subcontractor on Stoke Hospital and Watford hospital. 

Curti Lifts’ experience in working with Portakabin in the past is helpful due to the need to coordinate with designers to ensure that the lift designs will be compatible with the building modules manufactured by Yorkon.

This project is a very exciting one for the companies involved, as well as for the region. Modular building and the strong working relationships between Portakabin, Curti Lifts, and other will help to meet the urgent provision of school places in the region.

images courtesy of ©Surface to Air