Construction of a five-storey, £70million education campus in Richmond-upon-Thames College (RTC) is underway – but some residents have expressed concern over increased traffic and its visual impact.

The campus, in Egerton Road, Twickenham, will be home to the new Richmond-upon-Thames School (RTS), a Haymarket Group hub and Clarendon School – a special educational needs school.

A portion of the college’s playing fields will be given to the new building, which will be visible from the A316.

Construction began this week, and RTS’ first cohort of students will start in September 2017 – although they will be educated in temporary facilities and potentially in parts of the current RTC building.

The new building will open “at some point” between January and September 2018, an RTC spokeswoman said.

Robin Ghurbhurun, CEO and principal of RTC said: “Our vision is to create a college of further and higher education recognised locally and across London for its technical, professional and academic rigour, where students and the college work in partnership with business, parents, carers and the local community.”

Some residents on Egerton Road, and nearby Heathfield South, argued the increased number of students might impact their community.

Richard Kennedy, who lives on Egerton Road, said: “We’ve sort of reluctantly accepted it’s going to happen. It might be horrendous. We just don’t know.

“I’m concerned for the impact on our privacy. And we’ll have loads more students walking past our house every day. And on top of that there will be construction work going on for a while now.”

Mr Kennedy’s wife, Louise said: “We’ve been here 34 years and the area has changed a lot since then. It’s not that we’re totally against it. It’s just the not knowing which is hard. We just don’t know how exactly things will be different.”

Eileen Miller, who works nearby, said the new building “probably wouldn’t have much impact”, and that she welcomed the creation of school places in the borough.

RTC, which celebrated its 80th anniversary this year, said the school would “grow steadily”, only enrolling one new Year 7 cohort each September.

Eventually it will be a five-form school of about 150 pupils per year.

A spokeswoman also said the new campus would be a “community hub”, providing a new restaurant which will be open to the public, a media hub of about 20 people for the Haymarket Group, and a space for local artists to exhibit their work.