As the brand new, twin-site campus of Jewel and Esk College nears completion, the full scale of the £57million construction project has been revealed.

Between the two new purpose built campuses, around 275,000 metres of power and data cabling has been used – the equivalent length of more than 2,000 football pitches or the distance by road between the college’s Midlothian Campus at Eskbank, and Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.

Around 8,500 metres of water and heating pipes have been installed in the new buildings, with more than 100,000 pipework fittings used to hold everything in place.

On completion of the project, which also includes the new Edinburgh Campus at Milton Road, 8,500 tonnes of concrete will have been used – the same weight as 1,200 double decker buses –, as well as 1000 tonnes of steel.

Around £4.5million has been spent on furniture and other interior equipment for the new buildings, totaling more than 100,000 different items, from desks and chairs to knives and forks.

The project is due for completion next month, and will open its doors to students on November 17.

Once both campuses open to students, it will mark the completion of a project which the dynamic design and construction teams assembled by Jewel and Esk College have been working on for more than three years.

Main contractors Miller Construction, who was appointed in 2006, has worked closely with the Edinburgh office of architects RMJM who came up with the new campuses’ distinctive design, as well as KJ Tait Engineers, Woolger Hunter, Gardiner and Theobald, Davis Langdon and numerous specialist design advisors .

There will be a total of 885 rooms across the two new buildings, which will provide space and facilities for the college’s 7,000 students and 360 employees.

The process of detailed design workshops between College staff and the design and engineering teams has led to the meticulous design of workshops, learning centres, classrooms, offices and social spaces. Both campuses carry the same design themes, features and material choices, accompanied by extensive landscaping to create green and inspiring learning environments.

The Edinburgh Campus includes a complete refit of the iconic ship building and a new building added to provide learning and teaching facilities for students studying hospitality, multimedia, music, health & fitness, beauty and complementary therapies, catering and hairdressing.

The Midlothian Campus incorporates a construction trades pavilion as well as extensive learning and teaching facilities for health and social care, childcare, computing and business studies. The project is funded by the Scottish Funding Council, land sales, savings and a mortgage.

Director of Campus Redevelopment Steve Hudson commented: “This has been a major, technically complex and demanding project, and the statistics revealed today give a small indication of the scale of an operation which has been underway for more than three years.

“A project as significant as this twin-site campus redesign has to be done right, which is why we consulted with staff and students from the outset, embarked on a massive benchmarking exercise and engaged numerous specialist consultants and advisors. The result is a design which suits the modern teaching needs of staff and students as well as the provision of two new iconic further education landmarks for Scotland.

“These campuses will help the college offer a vast range of courses which involve a high degree of practical learning in a real-life work environment.”

Email: alan.garland@bigpartnership.co.uk