Over the past ten years Ravenscraig in North Lanarkshire, the site of the former steelworks, has undergone an extensive regeneration.
Now building on work completed to date, North Lanarkshire Council’s City Deal programme is set to provide the much needed road infrastructure to help realise the full development potential of the 455 acre site.
The Ravenscraig Road Infrastructure project will deliver improved access and connectivity, through and to the site – linking it with Motherwell and the M74 to the south and the M8 at Eurocentral to the north. It will also improve connections through North Lanarkshire to the wider City Region. As a result of these planned improvements, last year an ambitious masterplan was brought forward for thousands of homes, a new park, school and commercial developments.
The contracts for the City Deal works and the other planned council and partner-led projects extend across the site and will run over a period of years. In order to maximise the community benefits arising from these combined contracts, the council is taking forward an innovative area based approach. Around 100 community benefits are being managed and plotted in time and geography to maximise their impact, benefit and the opportunities being offered to people living in the area.
Contracts include construction and consultancy type works – such as for the groundworks, remediation and build of the new town park, and for site investigations, feasibility studies and engineering design.
Jonathan Speed, North Lanarkshire Council, Senior Project Manager for RIA said: “In developing the Ravenscraig Community Benefit programme, in the first instance we are working closely with local primary and secondary schools, alongside New College Lanarkshire’s Motherwell Campus, – so that we can tailor opportunities to children and young people living and studying in the local area and who will benefit from the future infrastructure and development it enables.
“A whole range of placements and education opportunities will be provided throughout the period of Ravenscraig’s development, including school visits, office experience within professional consultants, on site construction placements and apprenticeships and experience with site design and environmental assessments.
“Our intention is to offer children and young people the opportunity to experience all different aspects of development and construction and the many roles it takes to deliver a successful project. Importantly, we’ll be providing experience of diverse possible futures at a time in their education when they may be forming ideas and aspirations for the future.“
