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PROJECT REPORT: TRANSPORT FACILITIES & PUBLIC REALM
The focus was on prioritising a design that is “purposeful, simple, efficient and beautiful”
Birmingham Airport – all of which will be connected to the new station via an Automated People Mover.
The Interchange Station features two 415-metre-long island platforms and serves six tracks (two for high-speed through trains). This design accommodates up to five 400-metre-long high-speed trains per hour in each direction. The primary station concourse is situated west of the platforms, opening onto a public plaza to the north west and connected to the eastern side by a pedestrian bridge. The station’s design also includes facilities such as parking, taxi ranks, drop-off and pick-up points, and bus stops.
Arup completed the scheme design for the station in 2019, and the project is currently in the detailed design phase, which is being managed by the design and build contractor Laing O’Rourke.
Brief & concept development Throughout the concept design phase, the team made a constant effort to ensure they took a “holistic, integrated multidisciplinary approach” to the design, bringing together a large team of core and specialist designers. In the early stages, the team explored four primary options for where the station ‘box’ itself should be located. Two options looked at the potential of locating the
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station immediately adjacent to the trace (the track’s position in the landscape), while the other two placed the station ‘off trace’ to the east and west. These options were deliberated upon during a particular mentoring session of the HS2 Design Panel, and it was during this session that the idea of siting the station box to the west of the trace gained substantial traction. The architects challenged the brief throughout the design stage to “ensure the proposal provided value-added benefits across the multi-disciplinary design and achieved an effective and simple solution.” The design responsibility for the track itself and rail systems was outside the scope of Arup’s involvement. But for the station, the focus was on prioritising design that is “purposeful, simple, efficient and beautiful.” This was extended to cover how the team used digital tools. The analytical design tools used by the various disciplines were linked together, so design changes could ‘cascade’ through all work disciplines in real time. “A full BIM model was developed, and all disciplines worked through a single co-ordinated model within the site boundary.”
In terms of sustainability, HS2’s initial brief was centred around the goal of BREEAM Excellent certification. The team, consisting of ‘core’ and specialist designers,
ADF OCTOBER 2023
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