A major expansion project at a secondary school in Hampshire has been handed an additional £450,000 after unexpected ground and drainage issues pushed costs beyond the approved budget.
Hampshire County Council has approved the extra funding for the expansion of the Alderwood School senior site, increasing the overall project cost from £13.5 million to £13.95 million.
The scheme aimed to expand the secondary school by creating space for an additional 300 pupils and increasing capacity from 850 to 1,150 places.
The extra funding is required after contractors ran into unexpected problems during construction.
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While carrying out work on the staff car park, contractors discovered poor ground conditions that required additional stabilisation work, including bringing in large amounts of crushed stone.
The council also said the site’s drainage system was not working as expected and needed to be upgraded to tackle existing flooding problems.
As a result, a more complex and costly drainage system had to be installed than originally planned.
Construction began in November 2024 following approval by Hampshire County Council’s cabinet member for education in March that year.
The £13.5 million scheme included new teaching accommodation, with dedicated classrooms for technology subjects, textiles and graphics, alongside three new science classrooms and five general teaching rooms, as well as staff offices and meeting spaces.
The project also involves the refurbishment and reroofing of the existing science block. To make way for the new facilities, the school’s existing single-storey specialist teaching block would have been demolished.
The expansion was brought forward to meet rising demand for secondary school places in Aldershot and surrounding areas, driven in part by local housing development.
The school previously said it supported the plans due to growing pressure on pupil numbers.
