10 projects to watch in 2018
10 projects to watch this coming year include football stadiums, large commercial schemes and listed-building refurbishments – all challenging in their different ways and worth keeping a close eye on as 2018 unfolds.
Angel Meadows
The latest phase in the wider Noma masterplan in Manchester, Angel Meadows is a £235m development that includes a 40-storey residential tower. The scheme was recommended for planning approval in August 2017 and begins in earnest in 2018. The project is cited as evidence that investment into UK property and construction is not slowing down. More widely, it represents a broader indication that confidence in Manchester remains high. The next stage at Angel Meadows will be to appoint a contractor – watch this space on that front.
Aykon London One
Aykon London One is being pitched as high-end residential, with apartments designed in conjunction with Versace Home. London’s cooling high-end residential market has seen several schemes change tack, including the Paddington Cube and Battersea Power Station. Will Aykon be unaffected by these headwinds as construction gets under way in 2018?
Battersea Power Station phase two
The iconic chimneys have already been reconstructed and hundreds of piles installed beneath the building to stabilise it, so work will continue in earnest in 2018 on the full refurbishment of the power station itself – a crucial period that BPSDC will hope passes without a hitch.
Big Ben and Palace of Westminster refurbishments
The Elizabeth Tower, home to Big Ben, is almost completely covered in scaffolding now, much to the chagrin of some MPs who wanted the bongs to continue uninterrupted. On the wider Palace of Westminster refurbishment, MPs are set to debate the future of that project on 11 January in the House of Commons. The government has yet to publish a motion stating its preferred option, which will see either a full or partial move-out of MPs, but the decision should become clearer in 2018 after years of delay.
Brent Cross Shopping Centre
The overall construction value is understood to be approximately £700m – a very sizeable job at a time when retail is under strain due to general economic uncertainty over Brexit.
Capital Square
Capital Square is the largest speculative office development currently under construction in Edinburgh. The project is already under way, with work expected to gather pace in 2018. The scheme represents a bold investment into Edinburgh’s property market and shows the partners believe the city’s commercial sector remains robust. The project’s success will hinge on this bet being correct. But with businesses still asking questions about Brexit and even Scottish independence, it’s not hard to see how the balance could shift.
Chelsea FC Stamford Bridge redevelopment
Chelsea FC’s ambitious redevelopment of Stamford Bridge is set to be one of the biggest and most complex projects in the UK once it gets out of the ground. Designs are still being finalised, but it is understood that the cost of the scheme will be in the region of £1bn – higher even that the massive Spurs stadium further north. The project is set to take a lot longer than Spurs, too, with Chelsea likely to be at Wembley or another temporary home for at least two seasons.
Tenders for main contractors are likely to move along in 2018.
Grenfell Tower
The fire at Grenfell Tower will live long in the memory of everyone involved with the built environment. With the inquiry ramping up in earnest in 2018, the tragedy will have wide-ranging implications for construction. The question of what to do with the building itself, though, has yet to be resolved. Grenfell Tower still stands out like a scar on west London’s skyline, a constant reminder of the failings of the building and the lives that were lost. 2018 is likely to see a decision taken, with most expecting the tower to be demolished altogether – which, if it happens, would be the most high-profile and sensitive demolition project since the recovery operation at Didcot Power Station.
Paddington Cube
Sellar’s £775m Paddington Cube finally received the green light from communities secretary Sajid Javid in March last year, only for news to break in August that the scheme faced the prospect of a judicial review after heritage body Save Britain’s Heritage won an initial legal challenge against Mr Javid’s decision not to call the scheme in. Then in September, Sellar found out the project would face a second High Court challenge, this time from the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust over the Cube’s impact on emergency services’ access to St Mary’s Hospital.
Last week, the High Court threw out Save’s legal challenge in an important victory for Sellar, but the application for a judicial review from ICH NHS Trust is still pending a decision. Having overcome huge obstacles to get the Shard built at London Bridge, it seems that Sellar will have to repeat the trick again if the firm is to regenerate the area around Paddington – but sadly without its visionary leader Irvine, who passed away in February.
Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium
The demolition of White Hart Lane went ahead as planned this year and with Spurs now ensconced at Wembley, the race is on to finish the job in time for the 2018/19 season. The programme is very tight and has site teams already working around the clock, with the project’s most crucial period approaching in January 2018. This is when the technically challenging roof is set to be installed, with an exceptionally tight tolerance of just 1 mm in the roof cassettes being delivered by Buckingham Group. If there is a delay there, it could prove difficult to hit the ultimate opening deadline.
Source: constructionenquirer
