If you have been a regular passenger travelling through Bristol Temple Meads station any time in the past decade, you will have noticed the transformational developments taking place in and around the station.
To the west of the station, on what was once an uninspiring landscape of scrubland, carparks and abandoned brownfield sites, a cluster of shiny glazed residential and commercial buildings rise above the city鈥檚 historic Floating Harbour.
With a bit of a squint (the buildings aren鈥檛 quite of the same scale) it now does a passable impression of London鈥檚 Canary Wharf.
This is all part of a plan to redevelop the area under the 鈥楾emple Quarter鈥� banner, a wide ranging scheme that is set to transform more than 130 hectares of brownfield land over the next 25 years. The project promises to deliver 10,000 new homes, offices, research and commercial space, boosting Bristol鈥檚 economy and creating 22,000 new jobs.
But arguably it is to the east of the station where most of the regeneration is taking place. A derelict former postal sorting office that loomed large over the station and attracted a high level of antisocial behaviour has been demolished and the wider site cleared.
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This the part of Temple Quarter that is earmarked for the Enterprise Campus 鈥� an ambitious plan from the University of Bristol to provide a new research, development and learning facility focusing on digital, business and social innovation as well as new accommodation buildings for the students.
The campus is designed to be car-free, which inevitably means more people will arrive by train at the neighbouring Temple Meads station.
In anticipation of the surge in passenger numbers, Network Rail is now embarking on a scheme to boost passenger facilities, provide new retail units, improve the public realm and revamp, repair and improve the existing station facilities to provide easier access from public transport, walking and cycling routes. And key to this development is the construction of a new Eastern Entrance to the station.
Network Rail figures suggest that within four years of its opening, an estimated 2.5 million people will use the new Eastern Entrance, which is now being built under a 拢25m 鈥榯arget cost鈥� contract awarded to main contractor Bam Nuttall.
The entrance itself is being constructed beneath the line that serves platform 15 at Temple Meads and will break through into the existing underground subway that provides access to all platforms for passengers from the main station concourse to the west.
It is an awkward site: a wedge of land sandwiched between the reinforced concrete frames of the emerging campus buildings and the 3.5m-high brick-built retaining wall that supports the track bed and keeps platform 15鈥檚 embankment from slipping away.
But it is not just the site itself that has proven awkward. As is the case with most railway projects, the planning and logistical work that has gone into the provision of the new entrance has been long and complex.
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鈥淭he Eastern Entrance project is being carried out in two phases,鈥� explains Alex Phillips, lead portfolio manager at Network Rail. 鈥淧hase 1 was carried out in July and August 2021, when there was a blockade of the station under the Bristol East Junction improvement work.鈥�
Carrying out the Phase 1 work during the Bristol East Junction blockade 鈥� a major scheme that has helped alleviate a bottleneck and improve signalling into the station 鈥� allowed the Bam Nuttall team (which started preliminary work on site in October 2020) to lift the track above the proposed entrance and carry out the civils work beneath the track bed.
鈥淲e took advantage of the blockade to install the two contiguous piled walls that form the subway entrance and the sacrificial sheet pile wall that was part of the temporary works. This prevented any movement of the track bed as work progressed,鈥� explains Glyn Cryer, senior project manager at Bam Nuttall.
The sacrificial sheet pile wall temporary works were formed of 27 GU28N sheets driven 12m through the 6m-deep layer of made ground and into the alluvial deposits beneath. Any movement of the existing structure as construction work progressed was closely monitored.
In all, 45 of the 600mm-diameter continuous-flight auger (CFA) piles were installed to depths of 14m to create the two contiguous pile walls. These support the seven 12m-long, 1.8m-wide and 550mm-thick precast concrete planks that were lifted into position to form the roof of the extended subterranean passenger concourse beneath platform 15. Excavation of the subway was left until Phase 2 of the contract.
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Work under the second phase began on site in October 2023 with subcontractor Penny Demolition saw-cutting through the existing brick retaining wall so that that the team could tunnel beneath the track and break through to the existing passenger subway. In all some 750 tonnes of material has been excavated to create the new 10m-wide, 12m-long section of subway.
The new entrance features a 20m x 10m x 5m steel-framed and glazed building that will house ticketing facilities and passenger turnstiles as well as a staff control room and new power boxes.
Thanks to the depth of the poor made ground and alluvial deposits, it is founded on an array of 15m-deep, 450mm-diameter sectional-flight auger (SFA) piles. There are 17 in total with a 1m-wide, 750mm-deep capping beam. Concrete for the piling work and the capping beam is a reduced carbon 鈥楨cocrete鈥� mix supplied by Heidelberg.
There are eight main roof girders which that span the 20m across the building and are simply supported with columns. Each girder was brought to site in three sections and fixed into position.
The steel frame fa莽ade features glazed units. Those on the roof weigh in at 400kg each and there are six between each girder. They were lifted into position using a mobile crane with all work carried out under Network Rail鈥檚 stringent 鈥榓ll line running鈥� working conditions 鈥� where every aspect of plant and material movement alongside the railway is analysed to eliminate any potential impact on those rail lines open to traffic.
鈥淭he steel beams were just too long to get onto site and into place in one piece,鈥� says Cryer, 鈥淲e used a mobile crane and suction lifter to manoeuvre the glazing units into position and there was just enough space within the site boundary. The all line running plan manages each activity to prevent plant toppling onto the line. When the contiguous and sheet piling was being installed we were able to work under possession but that wasn鈥檛 the case for the entrance building and its envelope,鈥� he adds.
The glazing blocks are fixed using a hidden toggle system that provides rigidity to the units. All building materials used have been designed and installed in line with 鈥楽ecurity in Design of Stations鈥� (SIDOS) guidelines 鈥� including its robustness under bomb-blast scenarios.
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Inside the floor slab is set to be screeded to bring it up to level and provide step-free access to the existing subway. It will be terrazzo tiled to match the existing one.
Although the main work on the entrance is set to complete and be handed over in this autumn, it will be another two years before the general public will be permitted to use the entrance. Until work on the rest of the Enterprise Campus is substantially complete it makes sense to minimise the potential danger in mixing passengers with live construction sites.
That means the new entrance will be made secure and cocooned in hoardings until its opening is deemed suitably safe 鈥� good things come to those that wait.
Brunel鈥檚 Temple Meads gets well deserved revamp
Temple Meads station can boast a long and rich history. In the 180 years since it opened as the terminus of Isambard Kingdom Brunel鈥檚 鈥楪reat Western Railway鈥� it has emerged as the key transport hub in England鈥檚 southwest,聽 with more than nine million passenger movements each year.
Famed for its striking architecture (and for those of a certain age its appearance in 1980鈥檚 anarchic student comedy The Young Ones 鈥� the episode where Scumbag College gets chosen to go on University Challenge) it has been significantly extended in the years following its 1840 operational debut.
Work to increase the station鈥檚 capacity was carried out in the 1870s, 1930s and 1960s but there has been an accepted demand recently that the station is due a thorough refurbishment to bring it up to date.
Under the Temple Quarter programme some 拢95m has been set aside to develop and refurb the station with a new Northern Entrance and Southern Gateway proposed, the new Eastern Entrance, a multi-storey car park and the refurbishment of the main train shed roof and platform canopies.
Temple Quarter 鈥� a blessing for Bristol
One of the UK鈥檚 largest regeneration projects, the Bristol Temple Quarter regeneration programme aims to transform more than 130ha of brownfield land within this central part of the city over the next 25 years.
It is being delivered by four partner organisations: Bristol City Council, Homes England, the West of England Combined Authority and Network Rail.
The Temple Quarter will, in stages, rescue some of the city鈥檚 centuries-old industrial heartlands from decline into a series of well connected mixed-use communities. Some of these include:
Temple Island 鈥� a mixed-use scheme that will bring new homes, hotel, office and commercial space to the area. It will link to the new University of Bristol Enterprise Campus.
Friary North 鈥� development work to complement the improved Temple Meads station and transport interchange with new public space, green landscaping, walking routes, seating and meeting places alongside spaces for pop-up events and public art.
St Philip鈥檚 Marsh 鈥� plans for the St Phillip鈥檚 Marsh area are less well detailed. Development is likely to take time given that the area is still home to industry and major city infrastructure but it is hoped that alongside supporting existing business, development will provide business spaces that will increase and diversify employment opportunities and a range of new homes including affordable and social housing.
Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone 鈥� a key employment zone with clusters in financial and legal services, creative industries and digital technology. With development projects already under way the zone offers businesses a prime location adjacent to Temple Meads station.
University of Bristol Enterprise Campus 鈥� an integral part of the Temple Quarter project and a key driver of the area鈥檚 regeneration. It will provide facilities that focus on digital, business and social innovation bringing together world-class academic, industrial and entrepreneurial expertise.
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