[ad_1]
HS2 has submitted design changes for its Curzon Street station to Birmingham City Council.
Outline planning permission for the terminus was granted in 2020, with a Mace-Dragados joint venture being awarded the £570m job the following year and early works starting in 2024.
Application papers recently submitted to the local authority said: “The design for Birmingham Curzon Street Station celebrates the city’s engineering tradition through its simplicity and bold expression of structure.
“It can be said that the station’s engineering and architecture are inseparable. The process of simplification and refinement has continued through the project’s technical stages with the involvement of Mace-Dragados.”
Some 14 changes have been applied for including changing the roof cassette material from timber to aluminium and the concrete roof edge to aluminium.
Others include reconfiguring five concourse areas to improve accessibility and passenger experience.
Grimshaw is leading the architectural design of the scheme, while Arcadis and WSP are also involved in the project.
HS2 first announced the changes in September. At the time, Grimshaw partner Neven Sidor said: “Any design for a major and complex public building needs to negotiate a journey from preliminary concept in the minds of a team of engineers and architects to a much more detailed set of technical drawings embraced by the teams of contractors that will build it.
“We are therefore pleased to announce that the original design vision has not only been maintained but has also been enhanced through the detailed design process. It is more robust, more efficient to build, and just as elegant.”
HS2 said redesigning the southern entrance of its eastern concourse would “strengthen the arrival experience” and provide better links with the Digbeth area.
Other changes include “simplifying” facades by making them out of washable and graffiti-proof coloured ceramic tiling instead of the originally planned concrete cladding.
Before their 2020 approval, previous plans unveiled in 2018 were changed after then West Midlands mayor Andy Street described them, and those for HS2’s Interchange station, as having “all the quirkiness and charm of Stansted Airport’s baggage drop-off”.
Last month, new HS2 chief executive Mark Wild said the project was undergoing a “fundamental reset” that would involve renegotiating already awarded construction contracts in order to “bear down” on costs.
He also said it would take another 18 months to develop a new baseline for the programme – with timescales and cost estimates – due to the previous errors.
[ad_2]
Source link