Bradford Broadway
Bradford

Situated on a 10-acre city centre site, Bradford Broadway is a major retail development for the city of Bradford in Yorkshire, England that was finally delivered in November 2015.

Overall 51,000m² of retail space was provided along with associated parking & leisure areas. The development included two large anchor stores (Debenhams and Marks and Spencer), car parking for 1,300 vehicles and more than 70 other shops, restaurants and cafes. A further extension incorporated a cinema complex and restaurants. The final project construction value was £275 million.

The basement service yard excavation, foundations and retaining sheet pile walls were constructed in 2008 for a previous layout of the development and fabrication of substantial amounts of structural steel had commenced. The project was then put on hold for 5 years due to the financial crisis. When the development was restarted significant modifications to the layout and massing of the development were made to reduce cost and MPN were requested to adapt and reuse as much of the existing foundations and fabricated structural steel as possible to avoid waste and reduce cost.

The use of a steel frame contributed to a rapid construction programme and Broadway’s entire 6,800t steel frame was erected in just over 25 weeks. The project’s flexibility was aided by the slip-formed and steel braced core’s ability to provide lateral stability. Where bracing was not possible architecturally, MPN designed a series of moment frames.

As with many city centre construction projects, the logistics of working in and around a confined site, as well as making deliveries without causing hindrance to neighbouring businesses, were challenging issues to overcome.

A unique aspect was the logistics of dealing with a development over an extended timeframe.