Morgan Sindall has completed work on one of the largest sports halls in the UK, the £8.1 million Mayesbrook Park Sports Arena.

The high-tech facility in London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, East London, was constructed by Morgan Sindall for developer, SportHouse, and features a 5,000m2 clear span sports hall, a 1,000m2 gymnasium, changing rooms and catering facilities.

The state-of-the-art facility will host both local people and some of the world’s greatest athletes and will sit alongside two all-weather outdoor courts.

Peter Jacobs, managing director of Morgan Sindall’s London office, says: “It’s been a real privilege to work on Mayesbrook – the arena is going to have a life-enhancing impact on the local community and provide them with first-class facilities.

“We are delighted to be handing over the completed project to SportHouse. The success of this development has been based on total collaboration and sharing of ideas between the customer and the entire project team.”

The exterior of the building, which was designed by architect, David LeRiche, is overlaid in a variety of coloured rain screen panels, with windows of varying sizes to cosmetically blend the building in with the surrounding green space creating an eye-catching design feature.

The project included the demolition of existing buildings and construction of a community sports centre, new changing rooms, new pitches, two external multi-purpose courts and associated facilities together with extensive landscaping, car parking and highway works.

Mike Stimson, CEO of developer, SportHouse, says: “Morgan Sindall has delivered exactly what was requested at the start of the project and has been integral in the completion of the facility on time, which enabled us to activate our on-going plans for the launch and build up to the 2012 Games. Their professionalism is unrivalled and the results the company has achieved for us are excellent.”

A range of passive design features and demand reduction measures have been introduced to reduce the project’s carbon footprint. Features include energy efficient lighting and heat recovery from the air handling units which will heat the sports hall and a 30kW ground source heat pump which will contribute to the heating of the changing rooms.

Paul Jarvis, associate at civil and structural engineering consultants, Thomasons, the structural designers on the project, says: "We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to work on such a rare and exciting project.

“As one of the UK's largest world-class sports clubs with capacity for more than 7,000 spectators, it has been a real feat of engineering to turn the vision into a reality - particularly to achieve the clear spans required in the Arena. However, it has been a challenge we have relished and was the perfect way for us to celebrate our 65th anniversary."

Morgan Sindall recently completed the £38 million Basildon Sporting Village, which has been identified as a potential training camp for the 2012 Games, and is the largest sports project in the Thames Gateway, Europe’s biggest regeneration scheme.

ENDS

For more information about this news release please contact Ruth Cobban at Paver Smith on 0151 239 5000 or email cobban@paversmith.co.uk