The Forum Southend-on-Sea: Construction underway...and so is its new website.

The Forum Southend-on-Sea now has its own website - and it gives residents a bird’s eye view of how the £27million development is progressing.

Due for completion in August 2013, The Forum Southend-on-Sea will provide a new public library and academic library to replace the existing Southend Central Library, a new teaching facility for the College and new research and learning facilities for the University.

A webcam has been set up on the side of the University of Essex’s Gateway Building which overlooks the site where the town’s new library and learning facility is being built. It will give visitors to the website the chance to oversee building work on the project on a minute-by-minute basis.

In addition to the webcam facility visitors to the site can also view a computerised animation showing how The Forum Southend-on-Sea will rise from its bare foundations to an impressive four-storey building.

The website, which will be regularly updated with the latest project news and computer-generated images of the new building, has been created by Southend-based firm Revive.

It is the perfect way for residents to keep up to speed with the scheme, a unique joint enterprise between Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, the University of Essex and South Essex College.

Main contractors, Wates Construction, have been on site since early March and recently finished digging out the footprint of the new building. This process involved removing large quantities of the concrete used to construct the old Farringdon Multi-Storey Car Park which previously occupied the site.

Work will soon commence on the foundations for the new building, the construction of a reinforced concerete sub-station and the installation of bore holes for ground source heat pumps.

A spokesperson for Wates Construction said: "We are delighted that residents will be able to keep-up-to-date with the progress we are making via the webcam facility on the new website.

This is a very prestigious project for Wates to be involved in and we are aware of the huge interest it is attracting from the people of Southend."

The Forum Southend-on-Sea will also deliver a new home for the Focal Point Gallery, as well as a new café and lecture theatre. The Council is providing £12.5 million towards the cost of the project, with the University contributing £10.4 million and the College £4m.