Changing the silhouette of a town

UK contractor Connell Brothers Ltd has started work to demolish some of the UK town of Rochdale’s more dominating structures in the town’s centre as part of a £100 million (US$166 million) town centre regeneration project. Three structures are to fall to make way for the Genr8’s proposed mixed use retail and leisure development close to the new Transport interchange that opened at the end of 2013 and town centre Metrolink station due to open early this year.

Connell has already started work on the demolition of the city centre bus station and the municipal office building, known locally as the ‘Black ‘Box’, will follow once the former is brought down. Once the two structures are gone, the company will move on to complete the demolition of Telegraph House on Bailie Street and a new entrance to the Wheatsheaf Centre will then be built on the street to complete the remodelling of the town’s skyline. Connell Brothers predicts that the work will take 34 weeks to complete.

Mechanical methods will be used to bring down the reinforced concrete structure of the bus station, at which point the Black Box will be engulfed in scaffolding and shrouded by a protective screening. It will then be deconstructed from the top down – a method considered necessary because of its location close to the Metrolink and other buildings in the town centre, as well as because of the need to keep the surrounding roads open to both vehicles and pedestrians.

According to Steve Balyski, Connell Brothers Ltd operational manager: “We have a wealth of experience working in restrictive city centre environments throughout the UK. The team who will be working on the Rochdale project has been responsible for the virtual re-modelling of large parts of the city centre of Manchester including Mosley Street where we successfully demolished Elisabeth House, the former Royal Bank of Scotland and Eagle Star House. “This experience means we’re in a really good position to make the huge changes required in Rochdale while minimising disruption for the public and keeping them safe.”