Kier Construction has been given a contract to design and build new accommodation at a British Army base in Hampshire.
The £242.7m job at Keogh Barracks, Aldershot, will last for five-and-a-half years until July 2030.
The contract is derived from a broader framework agreement from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), according to a notice released yesterday (14 January) on the government’s Contracts Finder website.
Last August, Kier formed an alliance with six other firms – among them fellow tier ones Laing O’Rourke and Bowmer and Kirkland, plus modular specialist Reds10 – to add 16,000 bed spaces for UK armed forces personnel.
According to the MoD, the alliance “will ensure accelerated delivery and value for money in refining repeatable and sustainable designs for service accommodation that can be used across the [MoD] estate”.
Construction News approached Kier for comment on the number of bed spaces to be added at Keogh, and when the contractor plans to start on site.
A company spokesperson confirmed the work is part of a broader effort to deliver design-and-build elements of a 25-year MoD estate optimisation initiative.
Kier is working with Galliford Try, Graham, ISG, Laing O’Rourke, Lendlease and Morgan Sindall within the MoD’s £5.1bn Defence Estate Optimisation (DEO) Portfolio programme.
Other ongoing defence work for Kier includes a four-year, £99.5m job to upgrade RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall, which is a base for Royal Navy Merlin anti-submarine warfare helicopters.
Keogh Barracks was built in 1938. It currently hosts the 2nd Battalion of the British Army’s Ranger Regiment and 22 Multi-Role Medical Regiment of the Royal Army Medical Corps.
A previous accommodation upgrade saw modular SME Rollalong build a 70-bed accommodation block at the barracks. The firm finished the 10-month, £3.3m job in November 2016.
