A Welsh council has paid out more than £7m to secure the supply chain on one of ISG’s largest remaining sites.
Cardiff Council “safeguarded” the £108m Fairwater Community Campus site – which ISG was working on before it went under in September – by appointing a new contractor to the project and paying out millions of pounds to subcontractors.
The council said on Tuesday (12 September) that it had appointed Cardiff-based Borley Engineering Services (BES) as an “emergency interim principal contractor” to the project, so that work can restart as soon as possible.
“As part of the arrangements with ISG’s administrator, the council will […] protect the works completed so far by making payments in excess of £7m to the existing subcontractors and suppliers for works already completed,” it added.
ISG was appointed to the £108m job in 2022, and celebrated topping out in September this year – just days before the £2.2bn-turnover contractor called in administrators.
The Fairwater job involves the construction of three new-build schools for Cantonian High School, Riverbank School and Woodlands High School.
Cardiff Council has also launched a tender process to appoint a permanent contractor to the site. It expects that contractor to start work in April 2025, and for the finished scheme to open in early 2027.
When ISG was announced as preferred bidder in March 2023 it aimed to complete works on the Fairwater campus by autumn 2026.
The council said the project was one of the biggest ISG was working on when it went under – but it was far from the only project left in limbo.
Earlier this week, Mace picked up a £300m project that ISG was on, to deliver a neuroscience building for University College London.
Last month, Nottingham-headquartered Universal Civils & Build was appointed to finish a leisure centre in Chesterfield, which ISG was initially appointed on in 2023.
ISG was the sixth biggest contractor in the UK when it went under. Last month administrators for the company announced that it owed more than £301m to its supply chain when it collapsed.
