ULI Midlands finished 2015 with another successful event in Birmingham on 26^th November. Chris Montgomery, Project Director, Network Rail and Rob Flavell, Director, Turner and Townsend were giving an insightful presentation of the completed New Street Station, Birmingham’s most recent infrastructure project and its implications for the city and wider midlands region.

Birmingham New Street station has recently undergone a sensational transformation, turning from a tired overcrowded station struggling to cope with the number of passengers passing through each day to a brand new gateway to Birmingham city centre, fitting for the UK’s second city.

The reinvention and redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station has taken nearly 15 years from initial conception to opening of the new shopping centre and concourse in 2015.  Whilst the station platforms will not be finished until 2016, people are universally amazed at the transformation of Birmingham New Street station into “Grand Central”.

The 15 year life of the project can be broadly split into three five-year periods:

• Conception
• Planning
• Delivery

Background

Birmingham New Street was originally built in the 1960’s and was designed to take approximately 60,000 passengers a day (but was in fact running at c. 120,000 passengers a day).  The station had become tired and was arguably no longer fit for purpose.

However, whilst it may no longer have been fit for purpose, it was not viable to simply close down Birmingham New Street station as it is the biggest rail interchange in the UK and so one of the project’s many challenges was maintaining operation of the railway whilst carrying out a significant redevelopment overhead.

Conception

During the conception stage of the project, there were numerous alternative proposals submitted for how best to redevelop the station.  Initial proposals for the redevelopment were focussed solely on increasing the capacity of the station.

However, over the 5 year period during which the project was conceived, proposals evolved to extend to regeneration of Birmingham city centre, which is why the project now includes new links to the “south side” of the city which was not previously directly connected to the station.

Planning

Having established the outline of the scheme in 2005, the period from 2005 to 2010 was about planning delivery of the £1 billion project, which was inevitably going to be a complex undertaking given the continuing operation of the railway.

The delivery of the project was a joint venture between Network Rail and Birmingham City Council (with funding from central government and Centro (the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive)) and so the first stage in planning the project was for the respective joint venture parties to agree the objectives for the project.  The joint venture was structured so that both parties shared the risk.  Birmingham City Council acted as bank and on land assembly.  Network Rail acted as the developer.

An application for outline planning permission for the scheme was made in 2006 and at the same time the parties prepared their business case for the redevelopment.  The business case was one of the major obstacles for the parties as it was subject to intense scrutiny to ensure that it was delivering appropriate returns on what was a huge investment in the regeneration of both Birmingham New Street station and the city centre.

One of the most significant challenges in the planning stage was the acquisition of the former Pallasades shopping centre – this previously boasted a Poundland with one of the biggest turn overs in Europe.  Given the costs involved in doing this, all the options were looked at carefully and challenged to ensure they were robust.

In 2008, the joint venture received confirmation in principle of central government funding, which allowed them to start land assembly for the scheme, which included the acquisition of over 500 interests over 5/6 levels comprising both temporary and permanent relocation.

Delivery

Building of the scheme started in 2010.  The structure was from the 1960’s so the developer knew that there would be “issues” but the extent of those was simply not quantifiable before starting on site.

Unusually, Network Rail (as developer) did not take the option of using a single “design and build” building contract as they felt the risk of cost overruns (which central government would not fund) was too great and given the potential issues contractors were not willing to tender for the project.  Accordingly, Network Rail appointed MACE to assist them deliver the project and appointed 80 sub-contractors directly to deliver the project.

The development constraints were significant – between 6.30am and midnight each day, a train arrives or leaves Birmingham New Street every 37 seconds.  Furthermore, due to implications for the rest of the railway network across the United Kingdom, Network Rail could only take one platform out of use at a time even though significant work needed to be done to them as well as to the station concourse.

The first 3 years of the build programme were spent “back of house” in the former multi-storey car park where a significant amount of time was spent removing concrete to facilitate the new scheme and allowed Network Rail to build half of the new station – the original station was closed and moved to this new half overnight one night in April 2013.

The final 2 years of the construction programme entailed the conversion of the original station into the second half of the new station and which opened to the public in September 2015.  Given the complex nature of the work, the final refurbishment of the platforms will not be completed until March 2016.

One of the most efficient elements of the project was the delivery of materials – sidings at nearby Bordesley were used to store materials which were then brought into the station by train.  Regular commuters were often able to see cargo trains laden with deliveries or waiting to take away the concrete removed from the former multi-storey car park.

Conclusion

Whilst a hugely challenging regeneration project, with a main concourse now five times that of London Euston and vastly improved links to the whole of the city, the development of Grand Central has made a massive difference to people traveling to and from Birmingham and is now truly fitting as the gateway to the United Kingdom’s second city.

Whilst the project will come to an end in 2016, it is really just the start for Grand Central which it is hoped will highlight that Birmingham is a city full of potential and opportunity for investment and business.

Words by Matt Walker