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Worcestershire Parkway Station
Worcestershire Parkway Station - Winner of Prestigious Awards
Worcestershire Parkway Station has won the West Midlands' top civil engineering project award for 2020. The project, which saw the first new station constructed in Worcestershire in over 100 years, was also awarded the Geotechnical award and the Large Project of the Year award as well as the Best Overall Project Award, at the West Midlands Institute of Civil Engineering (ICE) Awards. The annual awards ceremony celebrates the best civil engineering projects, as well as highlighting those people who have contributed to promoting civil engineering across the region.
The new station, which opened in February 2020, is a key part of Worcestershire County Council’s commitment to improve rail connectivity, enabling easier travel into and out of the county, boosting the regional economy and supporting growing communities. The station drew praise from ICE judges for overcoming technical challenges through a collaborative approach, engineering expertise, tenacity and determination.
Worcestershire County Council’s cabinet member for economy and infrastructure, Councillor Ken Pollock, said: “Worcestershire Parkway is a culmination of years of hard work and I’m delighted that this fantastic project has been recognised at the ICE West Midlands awards. It’s an excellent example of improving connectivity to benefit the community, of which we can be proud.”
Ian Walters, Managing Director of SLC Rail, said: “Winning this award is a testament to the hard work and passion that our people and industry partners put in to delivering this station. “I’m extremely proud of our part in delivering Worcestershire Parkway and the lasting legacy it brings to the region.”
Worcestershire Parkway forms part of the wider £50million rail investment programme in Worcestershire and is a key part of the longerterm Worcestershire Rail Investment Strategy. The brand-new station follows improvements already made at Foregate Street in Worcester, Malvern Link and the redeveloped Kidderminster station which also opened earlier this year.
Worcestershire Parkway - Overall winner Client: Worcestershire County Council Partners: SLC Rail, Mott MacDonald and Buckingham Group Contracting It is not just the construction of the Worcestershire Parkway station that was impressive, but also the positive impact it will have for the local community and area. Linking two major railway lines, the facility should encourage more people to use public transport. Providing 25 electric charging points in the car park certainly showcases the sustainability emphasis of this project. The design of the station carefully considered the environmental constraints of this rural location and was sensitive to the presence of existing wildlife and wetlands. The judges noted that the design, engineering and impact of the project for the whole of Worcestershire was exceptional, making this a worthy winner in the ICE West Midlands Large Project Award category. Worcestershire Parkway - Large Project Winner Client: Worcestershire County Council Partners: SLC Rail, Mott MacDonald and Buckingham Group Contracting The judges noted that the design, engineering and impact of the project for the whole of Worcestershire was exceptional, making this a worthy winner in the ICE West Midlands Large Project Award category. Worcestershire Parkway - Geotechnical Award winner Client: Worcestershire County Council Partners: Mott MacDonald and Buckingham Group Contracting The quality of this submission, with its combination of both technical and lay information for what was a highly detailed geotechnical project. The project team impressed the judges with how they embraced the technology available to deliver this project through Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) and the resulting close working relationship between designer, contractor and specialist geotechnical subcontractors.
January/February 2021 GREAT WESTERN STAR MAGAZINE 105
