The counties of North West England have seen some world standard constructions projects being carried out over many years.
The high-profile construction projects are not just wonders in themselves, but provide employment to a lot of people in the area. It also benefits the community as the construction project brings associated development services to the area.
One of the recent developments that stood out in the Liverpool city is the Great Homer Street scheme, nicknamed as Project Jennifer. The £150 million regeneration project is being carried out by St Modwen who operates a regional base out of Warrington. The Liverpool City Council is also contributing towards the project which is expected to create 1,000 jobs.
The project will see the construction of a supermarket, shops, McDonald’s restaurant, petrol station, 900 car parking spaces, homes and district centre when completed. There will also be a Sainsbury’s store of 67,000 square feet. Skilled teams are being used to relocate machinery and a development project for creating new link roads and improving the existing ones has also been undertaken. Project Jennifer was initially planned to be completed by 2006 but was delayed due to many reasons including the recession but work has resumed once again.
We can’t complete the editorial without talking about the Liverpool Shopping Park, a project worth £100 million. The shopping part is spread over 473,000 square feet making it one of UK’s biggest and Liverpool’s largest shopping destinations. A line of restaurants and a cinema is planned to be constructed in 2018 along with shops for big names like JD Sports, Hollywood Bowl and Subway.
Another construction project recently completed is the Ordsall Chord Bridge which connects Manchester’s three major railway stations. The bridge is the first asymmetric rail bridge in the world and took £85 million to construct which began in 2015. The bridge is the nation’s first low curve bridge – a network arch with lattice styled like a tennis racket.
The construction was handled by Severfield in Bolton who lifted the bridge with a crane after it was made by them. It was then installed over the river Irwell. The Ordsall Chord Bridge is a part of the £13 billion Great North Rail Project which aims to improve the rail network in the north.
Manchester was fortunate enough to receive an architectural and design wonder through the construction of the Maggie’s Oldham. The project got double award at the North West Regional Construction Awards 2017.
The unique building concept was developed by London studio dRMM which is the world’s only permanent structure made of hardwood cross-laminated timber (CLT). An elaborate wooden structure such as this has to be protected with aluminium primer from Sovereign Chemicals, if it is to stand the test of time. The building sits atop six stilts under which there is a beautiful garden. The trees can grow right through the buildings incorporating nature into the surroundings. The project is an addition to the Maggie’s Oldham cancer care centre and aims to create an organic and natural environment for the patients. The rectilinear building is a visual beauty with tulipwood covering the building and a nice balcony in the front.
There are many other projects lined up including the development of the Warrington Town Centre valued at £45 million. The project plans to build shops over 6,458 square feet of commercial space, 362 apartments and 796 parking spaces.
