ALL CHANGE FOR BUS STATION

FINAL NEW PLAN UNVEILED FOR LONG-AWAITED CITY CENTRE TRANSPORT INTERCHANGE

THIS is the latest – and final – design for the long-awaited new bus station in the heart of Cardiff, with offices above and hundreds of apartments that will be available to rent.

The £100m interchange project next to Cardiff Central Railway Station will have a 14-stand bus station on the ground floor.

The previous station was demolished after it was shut down in August 2015 to make way for the flagship Central Square development.

Despite promises of a new station by 2018, the design has changed over the intervening years amid public criticism over the continued delays.

But now a new blueprint for the project has been revealed, with work due to start next week.

The scheme is being delivered by the Metro Delivery Partnership (MDP), which is made up of Cardiff council, the Welsh Government, property development firm Rightacres and Network Rail.

Work on the project – dubbed the Metro Central Interchange – is scheduled for completion in 2020.

A public consultation will be launched early next month ahead of a planning application at the end of the month. Planning approval is expected in July.

However, the scheme already has consent for enabling works, which means that work up to ground floor level can now start.

The architects’ firm behind the original interchange scheme was world-renowned Foster + Partners. But, as reported in the Echo two weeks ago, there was uncertainty over the firm’s continued involvement in the scheme.

Now the latest version has been designed by Cardiff-based Holder Mathias Architects (HMA).

The Welsh Government, which recently acquired the interchange site from Cardiff council for £12m, has also – at a cost of around £3m – acquired the rights to the original design information for the scheme, including transport planning and architectural principles.

That detailed work was carried out by around 20 firms, including Foster + Partners.

The ground floor element of the revised scheme is effectively the same design as that from Foster + Partners.

However, an issue for the original scheme was the cost of reconfiguring some of the underground utility infrastructure, including drainage, running through the site. It is understood the original design would have cost around £10m more than the latest, but not significantly different, one from HMA.

The original scheme had 110,000 sq ft of office space and 400 apartments. The latest project will see: A bus station with 14 stands and ancillary services;

80,000 sq ft of grade A office space; 300 apartments for rent; and, space at ground-floor level for tenants such as food operators.

The funding element for the £100m project consists of £20m for the bus station, £60m for the residential apartments and £20m for the office space.

It is understood that property developer Rightacres – building