News

19th May 2021 –

This new facility will expand Land Energy’s wood fuel offering to the market. The team at 3b are excited to be involved and will be working hard to add this facility to a list of successfully completed projects for the Land Energy team.

Design: Design and Build
Timescale: Late 2021

18th May 2021 –

A £2.6m funding package has been completed to transform Whithorn’s former New Town Hall into a community hub and bunkhouse with 3b starting on site this month.

Its 16 beds will mainly be used by travellers on the Whithorn Way which visits a range of religious sites.

Julia Muir Watt of All Roads Lead to Whithorn said it was hoped it could help revive the town.

“I think we are just aiming to create a complete change in the direction that Whithorn has been headed which, for several hundred years, you could say has been downward,” she said.

“This is to create that social and economic change, it is a trigger for other investors.”

The town hall redevelopment will be completed by autumn next year and will include a gym and sports facilities and a learning hub as well as the accommodation.

It is hoped that it can attract people to stop off on their way along the Whithorn Way. The route starts at Glasgow Cathedral before heading to other religious sites including Paisley Abbey, Glenluce Abbey and Whithorn Priory. It continues on past Whithorn and passes St Ninian’s Cave and St Ninian’s Chapel before ending near the harbourside village of Isle of Whithorn.

Designers: ARPL
Timescale: Due for completion in 2022

13th May 2021

3b Construction secured £2.5m worth of contracts to build a new marine engineering workshop for the Stornoway Port Authority.

The project is part of a wider £12m investment in its Newton Basin and Goat Island development with 3b. A large subcontract package was secured by local company Breedon Hebrides. The project will provide two covered boat repair bays within the new engineering building, one of which will be available on a long-term lease, and the other on a short-term basis. It aims to let local businesses create skilled jobs and further utilise the port’s facilities. Both the commercial and marine leisure markets will be serviced by this building and the facilities at Goat Island.

The development will also see the construction of an external wash-down area for vessels using the new boat hoist. The existing slipway will continue to serve larger vessels unable to use the boat lift, while a new public slipway will accommodate vessels too small to use the boat lift.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise has provided £3.5m, while £2.75m comes from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and Scottish Government, via the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund.

Construction works are now underway with completion of the wash-down expected late summer and the marine engineering building starting in the second quarter of 2022.

Stornoway Port Authority chief executive Alex MacLeod said: “Partnering with the correct contractors is critical to ensure the successful delivery of the Newton Basin/Goat Island development, so we are delighted to be working alongside 3b Construction and Breedon Hebrides – two vastly experienced businesses with a track record of success.”

Community Wealth Building Minister Tom Arthur added: “The ongoing programme of regeneration in Stornoway is seeing the revitalisation of the harbour and town centre with the establishment of a new commercial corridor, bringing about new opportunities for local business and employment in this important location in the Outer Hebrides.

“Investing in our communities will ensure every part of Scotland recovers from the pandemic, helping build an economy for everyone.”

Designers: Arch Henderson
Timescale: The marine engineering workshop is due for completion in 2022

7th December 2020

3b have now completed work on the new “Gather” Bistro at Laggan and have handed the project over well ahead of the proposed completion date. The bistro was the sister project to GG’s yard which was successfully delivered by 3b in 2017.

The new bistro is now open, and offers a place where friends and family can get together to enjoy good food, company and views. The 3b team developed the original client concepts to a finished detailed design, installed by our own tradespeople, to create a modern building with glass walls to the front which provides diners with a stunning sea view across the Solway coast, creating a great foodie experience – inviting both locals and visitors.

25th September 2020

3b have now completed work on the new Highland Cinema in Fort William and are happy to see the cinema open, showing films and serving refreshments, providing the community with somewhere to go in ‘dark evenings and rainy days’ as hoped for by owner, Angus McDonald. The Highland Cinema aims to bring the big screen experience back to Lochaber, providing a purpose built cinema, that combines cutting-edge technology with a beautiful traditional style highland building.

The 3b team were keen to be involved with the project, which involved a reinforced waterproof concrete basement dug in to the hillside in Cameron Square in the centre of Fort William High Street. 3b then fabricated and erected three steel portal frames on top of these concrete walls to house the 2 storey cinemas and restaurant. Using our in-house capabilities we were able to offer our client a great value proposition that was then delivered quickly.

29th July 2020

Wildland has a 200-year vision of conservation and ecological rehabilitation in the Scottish Highlands.

3b construction are honoured to be working alongside the Wildland team. Projects include the extensive restoration and large scale extension, including basements, of a listed hunting lodge into a state of the art hotel, new staff accommodation building, new recreation building, new office building, new meeting building, new commercial kitchen building, refurbishment and extension of existing cottages in to guest accommodation, new guest house with earthroom, new CHP biomass energy centre, new infrastructure works including a new access and bridge.

3b in partnership with the design team have developed a fully modular off-site solution to deliver these buildings in this remote part of the country. This has enabled us to manufacture the structural elements off site in precast concrete, structural steel and timber then craned in to final position. This has involved over 200 loads of precast concrete components being delivered to the project so far. We have manufactured over 40 loads of structural timber and steel that make up the frames, roof cassettes and walls of the buildings.

We’ll keep you updated on progress.

5th February 2020

The new bistro is due to open in the latter half of summer 2020. Adam James of New Space Architecture will work along-side 3b to create a modern building with glass walls to the front which will provide the diners with a stunning sea view across the Solway coast and create a great foodie experience – inviting both locals and visitors.

28th January 2020

3b have converted the existing listed buildings into new accommodation and constructed new buildings to provide a total of 21 holiday houses, 8 luxury flats and a leisure complex complete with swimming pool.

The project required a Biomass Energy Centre with site wide district heating pipework, a high specification fit out to all areas and an extensive landscaping package to include car parks, paths, play areas and soft landscaping.

28th October 2019

3b have started on site to construct a new factory, visitor centre, shop and café next to the Old Inverlochy Castle.

The Lochaber-based business has shops in Fort William, Spean Bridge, Oban and Pitlochry and expanded its operations further by opening a store in St Andrews earlier this year.

However, company director and co-owner Archie MacDonald, 28, said he wants the new Inverlochy centre to be ‘the cornerstone’ of the Highland Soap Company brand.

The objective is to create a visitor experience along the same lines as a distillery,’ he told the Lochaber Times. ‘So we’re going to have tours of the production areas so visitors can see into our workshops and view the process. We’re also going to have a garden with all the herbs that we grow so people can see what we make the products from. And, as part of the visitor experience, people can even try to make the soap themselves.’

‘We want the whole thing to be high end and attractive so the whole town can get behind it,’ he continued.

4th October 2019

The project consists of 24,000m2 of heavy duty concrete log yard extension, all RC works associated with the construction of a new log sorter including 3 storey control building along with a new dropsorter building, chip bay extension building, HV/LV switchroom buildings etc.