Workers are prohibited from entering the site until asbestos is properly removed, which is delaying Oxford University’s first new college in in three decades.
The project to open Reuben, a new college, began in April 2020 and was supposed to be completed by now.
The contractor, Morgan Sindall Construction, discovered considerable levels of asbestos in the wall plaster of the former scientific library they are renovating.
Health and safety officials ruled that workers are no longer allowed in the building in case they contract the killer disease asbestosis – a serious lung condition caused by long-term exposure to asbestos.
Plans have been implemented to remove the deadly asbestos without damaging the historic building but will see the new college significantly delayed and not handed over until Easter 2023.
James York, area director for Morgan Sindall Construction, said: ‘The lead into this project has been extremely challenging, and the building has thrown things at us that no one could have ever expected.
‘I’m extremely proud of how the team has tenaciously stuck to the task, and worked with the University and the college to create a solution to unlock what will now be a fantastic new facility.’
Reuben College will be formed from a range of Grade II listed buildings steeped in history – the first new one since Kellogg College opened in 1990.
The old Radcliffe Science Library on South Parks Road will form the majority of the college space, along with part of the Inorganic Chemistry Department and the 160-year-old Abbot’s Kitchen, which is the oldest known purpose-built chemistry laboratory in the world.
To be named Reuben College – after a £71 million donation from the Reuben Foundation – it will be a postgraduates-only college ‘dedicated to interdisciplinary research’.
Central to every Oxford College is the dining hall, and the plans for Reuben’s hall feature vaulted ceilings and exposed timbers which are usually found in the older, traditional colleges.
The basement will be converted into a climate-controlled storage facility to house some of the most important collections from the four university museums.