Construction work is now underway on the site of Nottinghamshire’s new joint police and fire headquarters – with the project running on schedule and under budget.
A new three-storey building is being built on land behind the existing Nottinghamshire Police headquarters at Sherwood Lodge, which will remain in use as part of a wider joint campus.
Work is also underway to make extensive improvements to the rest of the site, with new changing facilities and additional car parking already in use by police staff.
Beeston-based contractors Henry Brothers Midlands started work on-site in mid-July after winning a competitive tender for the work.
After completing extensive levelling and compacting work they are now laying concrete foundations in preparation for the arrival of the building’s steel structure in September.
Nottinghamshire Police and the Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, who are now joint owners of the site, hope to move into the new facility in January 2022.
Superintendent Paul Winter, who is leading on the project for Nottinghamshire Police, said: “This is a multi-phase project that has necessitated extensive clearing and levelling work to get us to this point.
“As is the case for large parts of the county, the ground beneath our feet at Sherwood Lodge is formed largely of sand sitting above the sandstone bedrock. That means we’ve had to do a lot of compacting work to the main site and also to the new access road that now sweeps around the edge of the site.
“Over the last couple of weeks our contractors have moved on to digging our foundations and laying concrete to support the steel structure of the building which will start to arrive in a couple of weeks’ time.
“The good news for Nottinghamshire taxpayers is that we are we are on schedule at this point and have already secured a very substantial saving with our contractor on our initial project budget.”
Beeston-based Henry Brothers Midlands has been involved in a number of major projects in Nottinghamshire in recent years, and are currently completing a third major development on behalf of Nottingham Trent University.
The joint headquarters project is the next step in a series of collaboration projects between the two services, which already share premises at Highfields, West Bridgford and London Road fire stations, and at the new tri-service hub in Hucknall.
The two organisations also jointly procure fuel, have a shared drone and incident welfare vehicle, and conduct joint safety and educational initiatives.