West Midlands Rail Programme’s (WMRP) University Station’s redevelopment picked up three awards at last night’s ICE West Midlands Awards.
The station won Large Project of the Year, Teamwork, and Overall Project of the Year at these awards, which celebrate projects of all sizes and scopes from across the region and individual civil engineering achievements. This comes after last week the station won Medium Station of the Year at the National Rail Awards.
The redevelopment of University Station is part of the West Midlands Rail Programme, which is led by Transport for West Midlands and the West Midlands Rail Executive. This project brought together 13 different organisations, with one unified aim and approach to transform the railway station into a world-class facility for the local community.
SLC-AECOM works in a Joint Venture as Rail Delivery Partner on the programme, and SLC Property managed the scheme’s land and consents property aspects with outside party’s such as the Canal and River Trust, and all rail and regulatory matters.
Paul Fountaine, Director of SLC Rail and the SLC -AECOM JV said: “We’re delighted to see University Station recognised at these prestigious awards. Our teams have worked tirelessly along with all Partners contributing to this iconic project, which now represents a fitting gateway to the world-class institutions that are the University of Birmingham and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital , and we are extremely proud of the impact University Station is making to the wider area. The West Midlands Rail Programme is part of a wider investment in rail in the West Midlands, including the development of five new stations. This achievement highlights the power of collaboration and teamwork with all partners coming together to demonstrate what can be achieved through a united effort and goal.”
The complex three-year construction programme was an example of excellent collaboration from a number of partners that enabled the station to remain open and operational despite contending with a number of site challenges, such as being on the grounds of a Roman Fort and immediately along side a Canal.
The project involved installing new bridges over both the live railway line and the Birmingham to Worcester canal and included two buildings one of which is based on the island between the rail line and the canal for which materials had to be craned over in a series of precision lifts.
The WMRP is led by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), which is part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), and the West Midlands Rail Executive (WMRE). SLC-AECOM has supported WMCA throughout the life of the project, working with partners The University of Birmingham, the NHS University Hospitals Birmingham Trust, Birmingham City Council, the Department for Transport, Network Rail, West Midlands Trains and CrossCountry Trains, and, VolkerFitzpatrick and Mott Macdonald who worked on the design and construction of the station.
