Steel solution for UK’s first mobility hub

Working on behalf of main contractor Bowmer + Kirkland, Caunton Engineering are fabricating, supplying and erecting the steelwork for what is said to be the UK’s first mobility hub.

Located in Ancoats, Manchester, the hub will be an eight-storey multi-storey car park with space for 406 cars, 150 bicycles, 30 car shares, a parcel delivery zone, café and public realm.

Developed in a partnership between Manchester City Council and Manchester Life, the scheme promises to help Ancoats be a place where people are prioritised over cars and supports the city’s ambition to become zero carbon by 2038.

The project will enable the City Council and its partners to deliver homes that will use the hub for parking – reducing vehicle movement around the neighbourhood and allowing more development space to be allocated for active street front and community spaces.

Leader of Manchester City Council Bev Craig, said: “The redevelopment of Ancoats over the last two decades is an exemplar in urban renewal. This next phase of regeneration gives us an opportunity to think differently about how our residents occupy and interact with the space they live in.

“The mobility hub is a key part of this, helping to put the pedestrian, active travel and green public space as the focus of the neighbourhood, rather than the car.”

Requiring 700t of structural steelwork, the mobility hub is due to complete in late 2024.