Birmingham New Street Station Could Win Civil Engineering Award

Birmingham’s New Street Station and Grand Central development is in the running to become the most popular civil engineering project in the UK.

The huge scheme, named the winner of this year’s Institution of Civil Engineers West Midlands’ 2016 Annual Awards, is one of the projects listed for the ICE People’s Choice Award.

It will line up against 11 other schemes from throughout the UK, with the general public having until November 30 to vote for its favourite. The winning infrastructure project will be named in January next year.

The Queen opened the new look station in November last year, and features an iconic new atrium over a big passenger concourse, which is five times the size of the atrium at London Euston.

The site is characterised by brighter, more spacious platforms, improved entrances, a range of new facilities and an abundance of natural light over the new concourse.

At concourse level, it is home to 43 shops with the new Grand Central shopping complex located above, including one of the biggest department stores in the UK – John Lewis.

The 450,000 sq ft shopping facility is set to create over 1,000 jobs and will attract more than 50 million visitors each year.

ICE said the project had created a dramatic space for rail passengers and redefined the way people use the station – providing them with an impressive new environment for doing business, shopping and socialising.

The project has also boosted the city’s image and is acting as a major catalyst for job creation and regeneration.

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.”

Patrick Power, station manager at Birmingham New Street, said: “The transformation of the station is nothing short of stunning. It is now bigger, brighter and better able to meet the needs of the growing number of passengers who use it each day.”