New era dawns for East of England Showground with start of £7.8m Exhibition Centre

The turf has been cut and contractors Linpave Building have started work on the new £7.8m Exhibition Centre. The Centre will be the Showground's largest building and will confirm the 250 acre site as the 'eastern region's most versatile venue.'

The project will see the construction of a clear span Exhibition Centre and atrium, covering 5,583m2. The fully air conditioned Centre will be linked to the existing facilities to give a total covered exhibition space of over 14,000m2. Coupled with almost 250 acres of outdoor space, the development will offer a flexible solution to organisers of almost any kind of event, inside or out.

Designed by B & R Architects, the Centre will consist of a steel frame, requiring around 500 tons of steel. To provide the clear span for a perfect spectator view, the largest beams will be some 55m in length, weighing 11 tonnes each. To blend in with the existing facilities, the building will be predominantly finished in buff architectural masonry and silver cladding. The atrium will provide natural lighting at the heart of the Centre.

Linpave Building's sister company, UCS Civils, will be installing the infrastructure. This will include 2700m of drainage pipework, 10,000m of kerbs, 22,500m2 of new access roads and a 2,000 space extension to the car park.

Andrew Mercer, Chief Executive of the East of England Agricultural Society (owners of the Showground), said: "We are delighted that work has now started on the new Exhibition Centre. This is a very exciting time for us, with this being the largest development to take place on the Showground. The extra space will allow us to meet the demand from major third party events organisers, as well as giving us extra flexibility with our own events. We are already receiving enquires for agricultural events for 2008, and we even have some bookings, already."

Paul Mundin, Managing Director of Linpave Building, added: "We established our site facilities in December so we would be off to a flying start this month. Most of the work in the first few months will be in the ground so a dry winter would be a bonus."

Completion of the Exhibition Centre is scheduled for Autumn 2007