This is the first carbon neutral bus station in the UK, opening to the public in June 2022. The construction took 18 months, which saw the old 1980s building almost completely demolished and stripped back to its partial steelwork frame, which was reused in line with the high eco-standards of the project. By reusing major elements of the previous building and retaining and repairing the existing concrete on the main apron for bus arrivals and departures, the ‘embodied’ carbon cost of constructing the new building has been dramatically reduced by an equivalent of over 575 tonnes.

HSP were appointed as the Civil and Structural Engineering consultants on the project. The bulk of the structural design work involved proofing the original steel frame to support a new exterior cantilevered canopy roof on all facades. The existing frame was also checked and strengthened for a new roof deck with mounted PV panels and to take lateral wind load from the new curtain walling around the public concourse.

St Margaret’s Gateway is a good example of a project where HSP had to continually adapt and evolve the design to meet the constraints of refurbishing and adding to, an existing geometrically complex building