Snow Hill Station Second Entrance l 1 Fl l Comp.

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Humm, entrance is the shop where I used to work.

[morestoreysplease]

Originally Posted by Erebus555

It's a shame they didn't use a similar template that you see for the windows in the other arches. Nevertheless, still looking good there.

Ditto!! I can't believe they didn't even try to match the art deco design up! Why does design always suffer over penny pinching??

[i_like_concrete]

I'm glad they didn't use the same template as the other arches! They look terrible.

[smysticed]

I quite like the deco glass thing, but seeing as how most of them except the station entrance are half bricked up I don't know whether it would work.

[blar]

Originally Posted by i_like_concrete

I'm glad they didn't use the same template as the other arches! They look terrible.

I agree with IIC that the art deco shop fronts look very 80s in their style

[smysticed]

Having said that, the new window does look pretty bad IMO. They haven't even aligned it with the arch properly.

[woodhousen]

looks pretty well aligned to me!?!?!?

[Spread]

I think he is refering to the differences in the frame width around the arch (left side being far slimmer than the right)

[woodhousen]

ahhh i see......

[Bachy Soletanche]

Originally Posted by SimonTheSoundMan

Humm, entrance is the shop where I used to work.

Bass Place? Or was next door?

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Originally Posted by Bachy Soletanche

Bass Place? Or was next door?

Sevenoaks Sound and Vision.

[U475 Foxtrot]

Legal wrangle over new Snow Hill Station entrance
Jan 21 2010 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post

Transport body Centro is in dispute with a construction firm over the creation of a second entrance to Birmingham’s Snow Hill Station.

The legal row is brewing after the cost of the project, originally estimated at £10 million, ballooned to £17 million and ran more than two years after an agreed completion date.

Work has been completed on the site by the Jewellery Quarter railway viaduct on the north side of Great Charles Street, almost five years after construction firm Bam Nuttall began the project for West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive. The second entrance has yet to open.

Centro said it was “in dispute” with Nuttall after it became clear the scheme would take far longer to complete than envisaged and that the final cost would be substantially more than the original £10 million tender price.

Surrey-based Bam Nuttall, with a reputation as experts in railway construction, told Centro that costs had soared following the discovery of unexpected complex engineering problems involving tunnelling under the Victorian arches carrying the track into Snow Hill Station.

A Centro spokesman said: “We expect the contractor to make its final claim in terms of the project’s price in due course. Until we see that claim we cannot comment on any speculative figure.”

The new entrance is likely to open in the spring, he added.

Snow Hill’s second entrance was originally planned to cost £6.7 million and to link in with a new coach station to be built on land off Great Charles Street.

Although the coach station proposal was dropped, Centro and Birmingham City Council pressed ahead, saying a new entrance would improve access to the station from the Jewellery Quarter and passengers would no longer have to cross the A38 footbridge to enter it. A revised scheme was estimated at £10m.

Reports to councillors spoke of a “strong business case” for the project, which would boost regeneration and link with a future Midland Metro tram stop.

In February 2005, four months before work began, West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority chairman Gary Clarke said: “There are some very clear benefits to passengers in proceeding with this scheme. It can make a difference to something like half a million journeys a year and will give a boost to integrated public transport.”

By June 2006, the alarm bells were beginning to ring.

A Centro-PTA report revealed the project was running late and asked for renewed backing for the “crucial” Snow Hill second access. Councillors were warned that Nuttall had run into “early difficulties” excavating the complex Victorian structure.

The report went on: “A number of project deadlines were missed. Engineers say the work is progressing but the additional entrance to Snow Hill Station is now likely to open several months later than planned.”

Coun Clarke promised to “keep a very close eye on progress to make sure this important scheme becomes a reality”, while passenger transport authority members said they were determined to “rigorously assess” claims made by the contractor.

He added: “I have already called in independent engineering experts to advise on the project and assess risks. We are validating all contract changes and charges to make sure they are appropriate before we will agree to any increases.”

A Centro spokesman said: “The contractor was given a total of 138 weeks, just over two and half years, to deliver the scheme and this timescale was recommended by our independent engineering consultants. We are therefore very disappointed with the contractor for failing to complete it on time. When it became clear the project timescale was slipping, the Integrated Transport Authority undertook a full review and brought in the auditors who subsequently gave the project a clean bill of health.

“Engineering wise, this project has been very successful in overcoming some very complex structural issues. Essentially it has involved putting a 21st century facility into a Victorian viaduct under a live railway line. The forecasted cost is between £15.8 million and £17.8 million. The Snow Hill area is establishing itself as the city’s financial district and is earmarked for expansion.”

http://www.birminghampost.net/news/w...5233-25653071/

[Spread]

£17m? How can a new entrance cost that?

[markmcd1976]

£17m is astonishing for two escalators and and a couple of doors... let alone the 5 years it's taken. Only in the UK.

[Erebus555]

It depends on what sort of complex structural issues they came across. But the delays do seem ridiculous still.

[Engels]

Glad to hear it will eventually open though

[i_like_concrete]

Originally Posted by markmcd1976

£17m is astonishing for two escalators and and a couple of doors... let alone the 5 years it's taken. Only in the UK.

Two escalators through a 100 year old railway arch... It was never going to be a particularly cheap job by any means, as well as putting massive holes through the arch they had to re-adjust the structure to make sure the loads were all accommodated properly.

[super1duper]

The electronic train time board was on and working yesterday inside, but the fence is still up around the entrance.

[markmcd1976]

Ok... we've just be up there to quote on an element of this... no time line for it to be completed... and the general consensus is that it will get hardly any usage now the coach station wasn't built there...
£17m would have been better spent on the Moselely Line or the tram...

Crazy...

Oh and it's taken the best part of 5! years...

[Engels]

I live in the JQ and can see the tremendous benefits this entrace will have for the southern half of the JQ - which will now have 2 trains an hour to London and better access to commuter rail. But even i will admit - that in the wider scheme of things - the benefits are to a small area and £17m is a lot of money that would have been better spent elsewhere.