Located in Middleton town centre, the former bus station was one of the most trafficked stations in Greater Manchester.  In 2001 GMPTE commissioned a new “category 1” station, the highest standard of bus station in the country.   

The £4.2m station, designed by 'Jefferson Sheard', was to include improvements to access/egress, safer pedestrian movement and remodelling of the site layout to make better use of available space. Facilities provided at the new station were to include a walk in travel shop, public toilets, bus station supervisor’s office and a retail outlet.

The new bus concourse, located on a reduced area of site 0.8 hectares, consists of a single storey steel structure (95m x 25m maximum width) with glazed perimeter walls, which on plan form an irregular curved shape.

The perimeter of the roof also follows a curved form on plan, each arc and straight meeting tangentially.  The outer portion of the roof comprises of aluminium ‘standing seam’ roof cladding supported by CHS purlins and a series of identical curved tubular trusses.  The repetition of these curved trusses contributed to reduced fabrication costs.

The curved tubular trusses to the outer portion of the roof are supported by a CHS transfer beam, which in turn is supported via a series of incline ‘V’ stanchions along the perimeter of the building.  The transfer beam also acts as a head tie and provides lateral support to the top of the perimeter glazing mullions.

The flat inner portion of the roof consists of a single ply membrane roof system supported by cold-formed section purlins, constant depth tubular trusses and vertical CHS stanchions. The cantilever ends to the flat roof trusses were utilised to provide the inner support to the curved tubular trusses.  All the feature connections comprised of standard pins supplied as pin barrel with end caps and countersunk socket set screws to provide a flush finish.

The lateral and longitudinal stability of the steelwork structure was catered for by the provision of plan plan roof bracing, fixed bases to each vertical CHS stanchion, the provision of ‘V’ stanchions along the perimeter and also by the supporting structure to the central portion of the roof, which was braced at high level by vertical bracing between columns & knee braces on individual frames.

The two accommodation units, curved in shape on plan, were designed as independently stable structures of load-bearing masonry construction with in-situ reinforced concrete slabs at first floor.  Cold-formed section purlins provided support to the lightweight first floor ceiling.  The outer leaf of the external wall comprised of stack bonded polished blockwork with stainless steel bed joint reinforcement in every course.

The borehole investigation indicated relatively consistent ground conditions and although the upper made ground was variable, the dense sands and gravels at 9.5m were suitable for piling.  The central steel frameworks together with the heavier accommodation units were supported by a series of piles and reinforced concrete ground beams, which together with a number of individual reinforced concrete pile caps allowed the erection of the steelwork to be carried out in two phases, as required by the programme.  A reinforced concrete raft edge thickening, founded on compacted made ground, supported the lighter perimeter stanchions and glazing. 

The form of contract used for procurement was the JCT 98 standard form of agreement with contractor designed portion supplement.  Thomas Barnes & Sons Plc, who was awarded the contract, commenced works on site in March 2004, with a completion date of July 2005.  Transport Minister Derek Twig officially opened the station on 16th September 2005.

To see a slide show of a presentation given by Kevin Marshall on the Design and Construction of Middleton Bus Station click here.