The regeneration of New Street station and the new Grand Central shopping centre is in the running for a national civil engineering award.
The £750 million project is one of 12 vying to win the first ever Institution of Civil Engineers’ (ICE) People’s Choice Award which is chosen by the public.
New Street was crowned overall project of the year in May at the ICE’s West Midlands Awards and will now compete against projects such as the reopening of the Forth Road Bridge in Edinburgh and the Harlech Castle Visitor Centre for the newly launched national crown.
The revamp of New Street station opened in September 2015 and saw a brand new concourse built and the old Pallasades shopping centre transformed into Grand Central, anchored by a 250,000 sq ft John Lewis department store.
Among its civil engineering features are 76-metre long green wall containing more than 33,000 plants and a standalone combined heat and power plant, said to be the first ever Network Rail station to have one.
Station manager Patrick Power said: “It is now bigger, brighter and better able to meet the needs of the growing number of passengers who use it each day.
“As Britain’s second city, Birmingham deserves a station of this calibre and the huge investment and improvement is helping to support the local economy and regenerate large parts of the city centre.
“Rebuilding one of the busiest stations in the country without impacting on passengers’ journeys was a significant achievement.
“New Street is now a station the whole of Birmingham can be proud of.”
The People’s Choice Award will be decided by an online vote on the ICE website, which is now open and closes on November 30, and the winning infrastructure project will be announced in January.
The full list of nominees is:
- Nottingham Express Transit (Phase 2)
- Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project, Essex
- Lee Tunnel Project, Barking
- Crag End Landslip Stabilisation, Rothbury
- Victoria Station Redevelopment, Manchester
- Lagan Weir Footbridge, Belfast
- Forth Road Bridge Reopening, Edinburgh
- Thorndell Viaduct, Bury, West Sussex
- South Devon Highway
- Harlech Castle Visitor Centre and Footbridge, Wales
- New Street station, Birmingham
- Leeds Station Southern Entrance
Watch: CBSO suprises passengers in New Street station
