April start for McLaughlin & Harvey on £60m scheme

McLaughlin & Harvey has won the £60m deal to redevelop Alexander Stadium ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games being held in Birmingham, Building understands.

The Northern Irish firm and remaining rival McLaren were told last week who had got the job with formal confirmation expected next week.

The two were the final survivors in the race to build the scheme after a pitch from Buckingham, whose recent projects include the roof of the new Spurs ground, was dropped.

McLaughlin & Harvey will start work towards the end of next month on the job which will finish at the end of next year.

Local firm DSM Demolition is close to completing enabling works at the site in the Perry Barr area of the city.

The pair have been building up their expertise in the sports market in recent years with McLaughlin & Harvey constructing a new £50m training ground for runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool.

And McLaren is building a new training centre for Leicester City, which is set to finish this summer, while it also completed the new training facilities for Tottenham Hotspur back in 2012.

Arup is behind the redesign of the Commonwealth Games stadium, which will host all the games’ athletics events, plus the opening and closing ceremonies. Mace is project manager on the scheme while Arcadis is the QS.

The revamp of the stadium, which is already home to governing body UK Athletics, will increase capacity from 12,700 to 40,000 for the duration of the event.

The work will increase the permanent capacity after the games to 18,000.