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| Flyer - Click to enlarge |
Fronting Broad Street and adjacent to Centenary Square, the 9.2 acre Arena Central site represents a highly deliverable and desirable location for work, leisure and retail. Sitting at the heart of Birmingham city centre, it is master-planned to deliver 1.2 million sq ft of mixed-use development, set within a brand new landscaped public realm.
Two Arena Central is next to the existing municipal bank and for the project to reach this stage has required careful coordination with a number of stakeholders. The eleven-storey office building (forward-purchased by global bank HSBC) sits above a rail tunnel and adjacent to the Paradise Circus redevelopment works, creating unique construction challenges that go beyond the norm for a commercial project of this type.
One challenge in particular that our Young Members found interesting was how the structure interfaced with the railway lines below. Our hosts, Galliford Try, explained how a bridging structure had been used to take the loads down through sleeved piles, either side of the railway tunnel, this avoiding any change to the loading regime of the tunnel itself.
A big thank you to Galliford Try for hosting what was a fascinating site visit. We hope to be back for more in the future and will keep our eyes on the site as it develops!
Post author: Tasha
