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 – January to March 2025

Completion of unitised cladding
Installation of atrium rooflights
Installation of roof level insulation and paving
Construction of internal partition walls
Dismantle of first tower crane

Construction update as of December 2024

Works at TQA1 remain on programme and continue to progress well, with workforce levels increasing to over 300 personnel on site per day, and with over 500,000 person-hours worked on site since commencement.

On the main façade over 800 unitised glazing panels have now been crane lifted into position, with only 350 left to install, and offsite manufacture of remaining units nearing completion.

At roof level, waterproofing works are nearing conclusion and cladding to all four roof plant rooms are in progress. Steelwork for the rooflights is being installed, ahead of delivery of the glazing units in the new year, as we maintain focus on achieving building weathertightness over the coming months.

Within the internal atria the final feature stair flight has now been completed. This has allowed scaffold decking to be erected to facilitate temporary weatherproofing, rooflight installations, and forming of atria walls.

Internally, the install of acoustic soffit lining panels nears completion, with over 10,000m2 of panelling now fitted, and internal partition wall installation now also commenced.

Mechanical and electrical installations are now well underway on all main floor areas. Over 75% of prefabricated pipework modules have now been manufactured off-site, with their installation on-site progressing to levels 1, 2 and 3.

Additional Information

BAM Nuttall works to the construction of the Temple Meads Eastern Entrance are nearing completion. The works are due to be protected until it opening in 2026 along with the opening of TQA1.

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.

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.

Item	KPI		Unit	Achieved	Achieved %
1	Work placements	50	People	20	40%
2	Jobs created	35	People	28	80%
3	Construction Careers information, Advice and Guidance events	27	Events	15	56%
4	Waged training Weeks	2995	Weeks	706	24%
5	Qualifying the workforce	80	People	54	68%
6	Training plans	9	Number	3	33%
7	Case studies	4	Number	3	75%

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.

SCORING
Respect Community	Excellent - 15/15
Care for the Environment	Excellent - 15/15	A score of 9 in a Section or 27 for the Total Report Score reflects a conforming score for the code of Considerate Practice
Value their Workforce	Excellent - 15/15	For more information on the Monitor Checklist, scoring descriptors, the Scheme's definition of innovation and report writing standards, visit www.ccscheme.org.uk
Total Report Score	Excellent - 45/45

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;

Social Return on Investment - Over £1 Million pounds

Local Employment (South West) - 51%

% Key Building Materials Responsibly Sourced - 99%

Construction Waste Diverted from Landfill - 97%

Toureen welcomed work placement students from Winterbourne Academy to TQA1 Bristol site.

The 11 GCSE students spent the entire week with us onsite, experiencing the wide range of roles the construction industry offers, whilst gaining real world experience directly onsite. Each day they met and heard from one of our in-house experts from a number of fields, including project management, health and safety, engineering, commercial, and sustainability, followed by onsite demonstrations, from cube crushing, crane operations, steel fixings, bricklaying and concrete operations.

Following this, and taking what they had learnt throughout the week, the students were challenged to build a bridge that would hold the most concrete blocks, a challenge they all rose to, impressing everyone on site.

It was a rewarding week to watch a new generation be inspired, ask questions, and take what they had learnt and put it in to practice, we hope to see them on site soon! A huge thank you to the entire project team from Toureen and to Winterbourne Academy.

N G Bailey visits local school for Careers in Construction.

Last week the Bristol TQEC (Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus) team delivered the Giant Tetrahedron STEM Challenge workshop to 90 year 7 students at Oasis Temple Quarter Academy over two days.

The day consisted of introducing who NG Bailey are, the different job roles within the engineering industry and how STEM subjects are related to various job roles. Tim Smith Project Director spoke about TQEC project and what the team are currently working on for the university of Bristol with our principal contractor Sir Robert McAlpine.

TQEC is one of the UK’s largest regeneration projects. The campus will be home to 3,000 students and 800 university staff, which will also be a hub for local communities. It is important for us to build relationships with local schools so that they can be part of the build process, and some will eventually move into the campus.

The students were very enthusiastic about building the tetrahedron and showed good teamwork and listening skills. Particular feedback from the students were “ I really liked the giant pyramid that we made, it was the best experience of my life” “It was really fun”.

A big thank you to Richard James head of Oasis Temple Quarter for hosting us, and Sir Robert McAlpine for supporting the team with the workshop.

Community events on site

Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus celebrates topping out

The Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus (TQEC), part of Bristol’s most ambitious regeneration project, celebrated a major milestone on Thursday, 12 September 2024, with a tr

Dr Bike Road Safety Event

We organised a fantastic 'Dr. Bike road safety event' for our local cycling community, in collaboration with Bristol Council and Better by Bike.

View event page

Bake sale for Maggie's

We are proud to have built several of its important centres across the UK. Our site recently held a bake sale on 20th May and raised £77.80 + gift aid for the charity.

Our partnership with Maggie's