The biggest education project ever built in Northern Ireland has finally been agreed.
A joint venture worth £375m has been signed between two local firms to build a large school campus in Omagh.
The Strule Shared Education Campus will host 4,000 pupils in six schools on a former military site by the time it is completed in 2028.
Woodvale, an Omagh-based family-run firm, and 50-year-old Lowry Civil Engineering, which is based in nearby Castlederg, have teamed up for the build.
The contract includes five school buildings and a sports centre, shared education centre, sports pavilion with synthetic pitches, infrastructure and site development works.
Woodvale has already built one of the schools that will form part of the campus. An £8.2m building for Arvalee Special School, which serves children aged three to 19 with learning difficulties, opened in 2016.
The contract signing finally ends years of delays. When design work began in 2010, the campus was expected to cost £100m and open in 2020. Demolition work started in 2013, and another Omagh firm, Fox Building & Engineering, won the site preparation contract in 2017.
Funding has also proved challenging. It emerged earlier this year that £150m ringfenced for education buildings in Northern Ireland under the 2015 Fresh Start Agreement no longer existed. The Northern Ireland Executive kickstarted the development again by committing £150m in March and giving it the green light in June.
Northern Ireland education minister Paul Givan called the contract signing “momentous”, adding: “Any uncertainty is now over and I am delighted to deliver on this huge investment for the young people of Omagh.”
The scheme aims to improve community relations by bringing six schools together on one 567,000 square metre campus with shared facilities: Arvalee Special School, Christian Brothers Grammar School, Loreto Grammar School, Omagh Academy Grammar School, Omagh High School, and Sacred Heart College. Northern Ireland architects KnoxClayton designed the project.
