Rochdale Riverside

Project Description

Rochdale Riverside includes 200,000 square feet of retail, leisure accommodation, a six-screen cinema and a 520-space car park that is central to the town centre. Hambleton Steel were instructed on a design and build basis, for this 18,500 m2 of five steel-framed retail and leisure accommodation. This new development will play a key role in helping to make Rochdale town centre a sustainable day and night destination. It also will create 1,000 jobs in the area and help to stimulate the local economy.

Challenges l Solutions

We could see at the tender stage, through design input from our technical team, that some of the buildings had unnecessary costs within the steel design. The proximity to the tram line was both an access and time issue. Many of the cantilevering elements on the façade of the cinema required multiple support systems to make them erectable. At tender stage, our design team redesigned these as plate girders to reduce fabrication costs.

Our design team, provided bespoke solutions throughout the design stage. This was due to the schemes being inherently unique in respect to stability space availability. This was something our team found a solution for early on.

Careful planning, working with other subcontractors and overnight working was factored into our programme, ensuring we did not impact the live environment and rail travel in the local a rea.

Rochdale Riverside is only the first phase of the regeneration of the town as a growing population has put pressure on the housing market. The local council is planning to build an additional 10,500 new homes which includes Upperbanks, a residential development comprising 242 new homes, a 146-bed Hilton hotel and new commercial space for local businesses.