TQA1 - Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus, University of Bristol

Project Overview

Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC) is a flagship development that brings the University of Bristol to the commercial centre of the city, to the east of Brunel’s iconic Temple Meads station, to anchor it in the economic renaissance and renewal of Bristol and the wider city-region. TQEC will provide the space to reimagine the University’s role as one of the world’s great civic universities, empowering and enabling a transformed relationship with the city region, its businesses, communities, and government.

The TQA1 (Temple Quarter Academic 1) Building will support the economic growth of Bristol and the wider West of England by:

• Strengthening the role of Bristol City Centre as an economic powerhouse, bringing together high densities of knowledge-intensive firms, innovators and entrepreneurs, investors, and anchor institutions for innovation, including the University of Bristol, and Government;
• Acting as a catalyst and hub for the creation of an innovation district in the Temple Quarter area, which could significantly enhance the economic growth and competitiveness of the city as a whole;
• Solving societal challenges as part of a mission-orientated approach, providing a clear focus for innovation and business growth interventions, and creating social and environmental (as well as economic) value; Accelerating productivity growth in Bristol; and,
• Supporting inclusive growth, enabling people to access opportunities that will be created in the Temple Quarter.
• The first phase of the TQEC includes development of a new 6 storey 38,350m2 academic building (TQA1).
• Public Realm / Highway Works
• Permanent landscaping works

See rendered images of scheme design for the TQA1 building;

Schedule of Work – March to June 2024

Groundworks – Underground service install, drainage and ground floor slabs
Steelwork – Erection of structural columns and trusses
Utilities – Installation of service infrastructure into the building footprint
Frame – In-situ and precast concrete columns and upper floor slabs
Logistics – Continuation of Tower and mobile crane usage within the site boundary

Construction Update

Foundations to the building are now complete allowing the insitu concrete frame to continue for the remainder of 2024. This work entails the construction of temporary formwork around permanent steel reinforcement, with insitu concrete pours occurring multiple times during the week as works progress. The frame will be serviced by all 3 tower cranes and around 120 operatives to facilitate these works, overall the concrete frame will comprise of approximately 15,500m3 of concrete.

Other works in the period include the installation of utility infrastructure and drainage, erection of precast components and lead in to the start of ground floor slab works that will continue through the summer. The frame will also incorporate inserts for later erection of precast concrete cladding as well as unitised façade (Glass and metal) that will start manufacture offsite in Europe, and come to site later in the Autumn.

Additional welfare facilities will be brought to site in this period to cater for the increasing workforce that will peak next year at around 450 persons, this will complete the site setup.

Additional Information

BAM Nuttall have commenced their works to the construction of the Temple Meads Eastern Entrance. Works have involved groundworks and modifications to the existing station structure ahead of superstructure works that will follow in the spring.

BAM Nuttall continue to use their exclusive entrance, adjoining the existing temple meads railway bridge for access and egress of plant and deliveries in accordance with their traffic management plans and agreement with BCC (Bristol City Council).

Social Value

The project’s Social Return on Investment (SROI) is attributed to local employment, charity work, education talks and work experience programmes. Since commencement of this project, the following have been delivered to contribute to the project SROI:

• Educational visits and open door events
• Charitable giving
• Local job creation

We endeavour to implement social value on all our projects and leave a positive lasting legacy. For this project we have some ambitious projects and have already funded £24,910 to 11 local charities based in Bristol including:

• One 25 - Night Outreach Van
• Bristol Mind
• 1625 Independent People
• Let’s Talk about Loss
• Dame Emily Park project
• Helping Homeless Believe

We are extending our support for homelessness with site initiatives for clothing alongside financial support given to promote opportunities and provide essentials.

We have joined with our client the University of Bristol to launch a DEC (Design Engineer Construct) programme with a local Bristol secondary school – more to follow but this will be a first for Bristol and help promote stem subjects in Bristol. Our site is also being used as a learning resource with multiple visits by different engineering groups to support their academic syllabus.

A cycling safety event will be arranged over the coming months to promote effective measures to keep our cycling community safe when on the road in Bristol.

Our social value employment and skills metrics are being tracked as the project progresses and we are now in a position to share the performance against our targets for the project as of the end of January 2024. Further updates will build upon these figures as we look forward towards new trades starting.

Our site was independently assessed by the nationally recognised Considerate Contractors Scheme on 11th December 2023, and was awarded a maximum score of 45 out of 45. This has been made possible by pooling best practice examples from both our business and the wider industry for which we are extremely thankful. Extract of report below.

Pedestrians and Cyclists

Safe access and egress of our site vehicles over the public use of the footpath and cycleways is of paramount importance to us. As such we have worked closely with Bristol City Council over the past 12 months to develop proposals to address the changing needs of the site. In the summer last year we have constructed a new layby and site entrance. 

Following initial and footpath and cycleway traffic calming measures, we have extended tarmac roads into the site to aid effective cleaning of transport, and enhanced our site standards by training our full time gate persons to CLOCS Standards.

Our traffic calming measures have been agreed with Bristol City Council, and will be supported using our gate personnel to control our construction traffic. Our aim is united with the council, and our client the University of Bristol, to install effective measures to control the risk to public from the site’s traffic movements.

We have illustrated the approved layout of these measures below;

click to enlarge

Sustainability Performance

We aim to ensure our construction activities do not harm the local environment. To drive sustainability on the project we set deliverables around key focus areas. These include both Resource Efficiency and Social Value.

To date over 87,000 tonnes of key building materials have been procured by our supply chain. 97% of these materials have responsible sourcing certification. Obtaining certification gives confidence that the manufacturers of these materials have responsibly managed their environmental and social impact.

The generation of construction waste continues to be a challenge. We utilise ‘take back schemes’ where suppliers collect packaging waste from site, such as wooden pallets. We also have a contract with BWRP (Bristol Wood Recycling Project) to collect and reuse timber from construction. These schemes allow the reuse of materials and reduce our impact on natural resources. Current performance to date includes;

% Key Building Materials Responsibly Sourced - 97%

Social Return on Investment - £430,984% Local

Local Employment (South West) - 42%

Construction Waste Diverted from Landfill - 96%