Building work to transform Bradford College into a new state-of-the-art facility with a £50 million investment has started.

The first stage will see the creation of a temporary entrance to the Westbrook building, which will be ready to welcome students in September.

The fully-glazed entrance on to Carlton Street will be in place for the two years of the construction of the new build.

The college announced last week that BAM Construction North East will be doing the building work, which started yesterday.

Jason Pink, BAM construction project manager, said: “Hoardings will be placed around the site to enclose and secure to prepare the building for demolition.

“We are really excited about commencing this project with the college, and look forward to delivering high-quality education facilities in the future for the community of Bradford and beyond.”

The proposed eco-friendly campus design will be sympathetic to the large-scale mill and warehouse buildings that characterise parts of Bradford.

College principal and chief executive Michele Sutton said: “We’ve been waiting quite a long time to start work on this new building.

“We’re very excited and looking forward to June 2014 when our new building will be complete. We know that we are going to provide a top-class education facility for people in Bradford and we are also going to help regenerate the centre of Bradford, which is great.”

The project had faced disappointment when a previous £120 million transformation plan was rejected two years ago but in January, the approved the new scaled-down project.