By Lisa Ramsden
A “SIGNIFICANT milestone” has been reached in the development of the new Down High School.
Footage released by the construction company tasked with building the £33m replacement school, on a site along the Strangford Road, shows the building in all its glory.
In a statement accompanying the drone footage, the Graham Group said the building had reached the end of the structural phase of the construction.
‘We have reached a significant construction milestone in the delivery of Down High School on Strangford Road, Downpatrick, as the building tops out,’ the statement read.
Outlining that the £33m project will create a state-of-the-art education campus including a sports hall, PE facilities and sports pitches, catering for up to 950 pupils, it continued by explaining that work is now under way on the next phase, which includes completing the block work, screeding floors and making the building wind and watertight. This will be followed by fitting out the building.
The original Down High School, which has been in existence since the 1930s, occupies the site of Downpatrick’s 19th century County Gaol, in an area of the town now known as Mount Crescent. It opened in 1933.
Work on its replacement commenced last year.
In a post on its website, the school acknowledges it is ‘delighted that work on our new school on the Strangford Road in Downpatrick started in February 2023’ and adds that the scheme ‘is expected to be completed in the spring of 2025’.