Bidding has begun for the contract to construct the new Solihull Interchange Station on the HS2 network, in a deal that would be worth £370 million.
Located on a 150-acre site to the east of the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham Airport, the station is designed not just to improve transport connectivity across the country and Midlands region, but also to act as a catalyst for local economic and housing developments.
This is projected to include 3,000 new homes and 70,000 sq m of commercial space to help generate up to 30,000 jobs in a project run by a new Urban Growth Company.
With as many as 1,000 construction workers set to be involved at the peak of the project, plant tool hire services are likely to be in big demand.
HS2 stated that a central element of the station will be its environmental performance, noting that the building has already become the first railway station in the world to achieve BREEAM ‘excellent’ status just at the design stage for its various eco-friendly features.
These include rainwater harvesting on the roof, ground source heat pumps, LED lighting and efforts to maximise natural light.
Such considerations are important, because HS2 remains a controversial topic for some environmentalists, who are opposed to the project on the grounds that its construction will mean the destruction of habitat, the cutting down of trees and potential disruption of rare environments.
Buckinghamshire County Council and the Chilterns Conservation Board are among those recently expressing concerns, arguing that tunnelling work under the Chilterns might pollute the chalk streams emerging from the aquifers under the hills.
The stop HS2 campaign has also used environmental arguments against the project, focusing on disputes such as the future of Jones Hill Wood in Buckinghamshire.
However, proponents have said HS2 will cut carbon by encouraging public transport use and one way this could happen is through the extended Midland Metro tram system, which will link the vicinity with central Birmingham via the city’s eastern suburbs of the city. The trams will also serve the new Curzon Street station in the city centre.
HS2 minister Andrew Stephenson said: “HS2’s Interchange Station will be one of the best-connected places in the UK, bringing together rail, road and air transport links and today’s milestone takes us one step closer to delivering a new, modern, zero-carbon station.”
The tender shortlist for the contract is due to be announced later this year, with the winning bid chosen next year and construction work commencing on 2024.
HS2’s announcement follows previous decisions over the development of Curzon Street, which lies on the eastern edge of Birmingham city centre.
Curzon Street Station will not just create construction jobs and contracts in isolation; the site sits at the heart of a 141-hectare regeneration area that is expected to receive £724 million of investment, creating 36,000 new jobs, 600,000 sq ft of commercial space and 4,000 new homes.
Like Solihull, the newly constructed part of the station will be built to BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standards, although part of it will use an existing structure that had lain abandoned.