/ Design/Engineering / Birmingham New Street Station Celebrates First Anniversary of Reopening

Birmingham New Street Station Celebrates First Anniversary of Reopening

Parul Dubey on September 20, 2016 - in Design/Engineering, Lifecycle

One year on from its reopening by her Majesty the Queen on September 20, 2015, visitors to Birmingham New Street station are enjoying a step-change in their experiences of what a station can offer. In addition to keeping over 170,000 passengers/day moving, the UK’s biggest station outside London offers extensive retail and leisure facilities, in a light, aesthetically pleasing and dynamic environment.

Atkins, one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies, is proud to celebrate its collaborative role in the transformation of this multiple award-winning station.

Stephen Ashton, engineering director, transportation at Atkins, said “We are very proud to have worked in collaboration with our partner organisations to have delivered this iconic station, which has made such a positive impact in just one year to the city of Birmingham and its visitors.”

Atkins was the lead designer on the project, which will serve as a blueprint for the design of the stations of the future.  The seven-year £750 million project to redevelop Birmingham New Street station and Grand Central shopping centre shows how innovative design and engineering practice can drive enhanced levels of passenger satisfaction, enable multimodal travel and provide a valuable economic boost.

Hala Lloyd, Atkins’ associate architect, said: “Looking at the station today, what I’m most proud of is how seamlessly the design brings together all of the different transport modes, retail outlets and outdoor spaces. We really have achieved a station that reads as one with its external environment and that has become part of the urban realm. It’s not just somewhere you go to catch a train anymore, it’s part of a normal walking route in the city, and a place where people want to be.”

Visitors now use the station regardless of whether they plan to travel by train, to shop, dine, meet friends, navigate the city centre or to connect to nearby metro or bus services.  This is reflected in the consistently high customer satisfaction ratings recorded by Network Rail since the reopening of the station.

The station redevelopment has not only acted as a catalyst for attracting Birmingham residents and visitors, but has also streamlined transport links, facilitating the access of outer-lying communities to the centre and encouraging local businesses to invest in the area.

Over the last year, Birmingham New Street has won a host of prestigious industry awards, and Atkins and its partners have been recognised by industry peers as showcasing best practice.

Awards won include:

  • Engineering News-Record (ENR) Global Best Rail Project 2016
  • Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Awards 2016: West Midlands Best Project of the Year
  • Institute of Civil Engineers West Midlands Awards 2016: Construction Award and Overall winner
  • Construction News Awards 2016: Project of the Year
  • Constructing Excellence Awards 2016: Project of the Year
  • Rail Business Awards 2016: Station Excellence
  • UK Rail Industry Awards 2016: Outstanding Large Project

Atkins’ engineering and design team applied the latest technologies and innovations in the assessment of existing structures and in the design of the new ones to enable the new steel-framed John Lewis structure to be built partly over the old 1965 reinforced concrete station.

Atkins has a team of over 200 people working on the project at its peak, drawing on a range of multidisciplinary expertise from civils, highways and architecture to modelling, telecommunications and landscaping, including colleagues from its Global Design Centre in Bangalore, India.

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