Bradford College

Demolition for Randall Well

Bradford College has commenced the demolition of the Randall Well building on Great Horton Road, Bradford.

Randall Well was first opened and used by the College in 1975. The building was originally built to house Art, Design and Engineering courses, but due to lack of funding the building was never finished. Today the building is only one third the size of the original design with continuation ‘kickers’ clearly visible through the roof. The ‘kickers’ were built to enable connection of the building as it progressed upward but they have never been used. It was intended to connect the building to the Kent Wing in the Westbrook Building via connecting corridors some at high level, but again these were never built.

In recent years Randall Well housed Construction and Engineering, including motor vehicle. The provision for these subjects relocated to the new £20million state-of-the-art Trinity Green Campus on Easby Road in September 2008. Motor Vehicle courses will move to Bowling Back Lane workshops and courses will begin operating this September.

The building demolition forms part of the College’s ongoing Accommodation Strategy; as it is no longer fit for purpose, has a history of building related problems and currently stands empty it is now necessary to demolish Randall Well for financial and health & safety reasons.

Bradford based company, Gills Demolition has been contracted to strip, demolish and landscape the building and its land. The building will be demolished in stages, progressing from the East elevation through to the West. It is programmed to take 8 weeks to demolish followed by remedial building work which is programmed to take 4 weeks, giving an overall contract period of 12 weeks from mid August.

ARCADIS, Structural & Civil Consulting Engineers have been appointed to engineer the demolition and to oversee remedial works to the site on completion of the demolition project. The site will be levelled to prepare space for future expansion when funding provision eases.

Plans for developing the Randall Well site have been suspended due to the Government’s capital spending freeze. In March this year the College expressed its dismay and frustration after government funding for a £120 million new campus was put on hold.

The Learning & Skills Council (LSC) announced a national freeze on funding for 144 capital investment applications from colleges across the country after revealing that it did not have the money to support them.