By Karen McShane, CIHT Immediate Past President 

Translink, who maintain and operate Northern Ireland’s public transport fleet, see this transport hub as their flagship development delivered through a blended team of enabling works by GRAHAM Civil Engineering, the main construction by a Farrans Sacyr joint venture, Translink and a mixture of a client-lead team.

To achieve decarbonisation of the fleet by 2040, Translink views Grand Central Station as a main enabler. It will deliver 26 new bus stands replacing the existing 18 and will add four new platforms to the train hub. This allows the creation of cross-border services relocating the Enterprise European cross-border service from Lanyon Place to the new hub delivering a more integrated service linking with local buses, gliders, taxis, cycling and walking. 

Translink have already acted to decarbonise the fleet and Derry-Londonderry is the first UK city to have a full all-electric bus fleet. Belfast is already rolling out a hydrogen fleet and Translink are looking at the commercialisation of hydrogen production, which aligns their strategy with the Department for Infrastructure (DfI).

Working with early contractor involvement, the team have derisked many items in the programme by operating two years ahead of the main contract. These enabling works by GRAHAM and Babcock International have already changed some services and signal isolation allows for more frequent services and efficient use on the existing lines.

Translink describe the project as a transport-led regeneration project sandwiched between two of Northern Ireland’s lowest socio-economic groups. It gained support through social value clauses, education, extensive public consultation, and outlined how they are delivering a project ‘with the community’ and not ‘to the community’.

They also acknowledge the support of the community and elected representatives in approving planning permission for 1.4m sq ft of residential and commercial development.

Image: CGI representation of Belfast Grand Central Station; credit: Translink

Collaboration at the heart of the project

Duncan McAllister, Head of Belfast Grand Central Station and Weavers Cross Programme at Translink, says: “In today’s market a lot of projects have been crippled with procurement challenges. The executive team listened and gave authority to recruit expertise so that the client was well informed of the risks involved”. 

Louise Doyle was appointed early as Station Manager and led a very driven process. Partners were encouraged to develop along with the Translink team so that the experience and lessons learned are retained. McAllister continues: “The team share an office together enabling decisions to be made quickly,” adding that, “The NEC (New Engineering Contract) clauses are linked to collaboration. Projects like this don’t happen every day, but the integrated team have a can-do attitude.” 

Looking to the future, this project will link to the All-Island Strategic Rail Review in which the Irish government has potential for further major investment. Already there has been funding in excess of £300m, and no other transport provider in the UK has reached this level.

Patrick Finnegan is part of the project management team, and he outlines how BIM (Building Information Modelling) plays an important role, with a digital twin of the scheme developed to highlight clashes by bringing all disciplines into one space. 

When complete, there will be an ‘as built’ model with a laser scan of the constructed development. Jason Wylie, also from the project management team, states how the transparency of data saves time, and that the project has 46 key milestones of which 94% have already been delivered early or on time. As the scheme is being produced with public sector money, it is also noted that 91% of the funds have gone to local contractors and suppliers. 

The scheme reinforces that we cannot build ourselves out of congestion by adding more capacity as we did in the past. We can no longer design for ‘predict and provide’. There is a need to refocus on moving people and goods rather than metal on our networks.

With a constrained environment in city centres, public transport needs to be reliable to provide that sustainable travel alternative. As Immediate Past President, I am proud this scheme shows how we can make a difference if we give serious consideration to achieving climate change targets.

Karen McShane also visited Belfast Harbour Estate to meet the team at Artemis Technologies.

Image: CGI representation of Belfast Grand Central Station; credit: Translink