Birmingham New Street Station was officially re-opened by the Queen in November 2015 after a five year, £750M transformation – turning the dark and oppressive 1960s building into a modern transport hub.
The new roof comprises an EFTE inflated cushion system supported off curved steel tubular arch beams, which in turn are supported off two dramatic wishbone truss arches. The late addition of a five storey department store, and the lack of information about the original building, added complexity to this challenging project.
This was a huge challenge - to transform the old outdated station into a dynamic modern transportation hub with a concourse 5 times the size of Euston. The engineers devised a scheme that dealt with the considerable uncertainty in the existing structure and enabled high volumes of train and pedestrian traffic to be maintained throughout. On any other site this would have been a difficult building to design and construct, but to do so within the confines of a busy active station makes this a very considerable achievement, which has been possible thanks to clever structural engineering.