Work begins at Bristol Temple Meads to create new £95m entrance
Construction on a new entrance to Bristol Temple Meads station has begun.
The new Eastern entrance will make it easier for people to access the station from the east of the city and will open directly into the University of Bristol’s new Enterprise Campus.
It is funded by the £94.7m won from central government for the Temple Quarter programme by Mayor Dan Norris’s West of England Mayoral Combined Authority last year.
It is the first major piece of infrastructure delivery under the regeneration programme, which is being administered by the Mayoral Combined Authority, and will see three new entrances delivered to the east, south and north of the station, alongside new homes, jobs, and public spaces.
The Temple Quarter regeneration programme, a partnership project between the Mayoral Combined Authority, Bristol City Council, Homes England, and Network Rail, will transform 130 hectares of land around Bristol Temple Meads station to deliver 10,000 new homes and thousands of new jobs, alongside new public spaces and more.
Initial works to prepare for the delivery of the new entrance were carried out within the station in 2021, with £22m of funding by the Mayoral Combined Authority, to keep the programme on track before the government grant was won by the Mayor. By taking this proactive partnership approach, the Temple Quarter partners were able to save time and money, as well as reducing disruption to rail passengers.
Over the coming months, work will include piling work to support the creation of the new entrance in the existing retaining wall, followed by breaking through the wall and excavation works to create a tunnel through to the subway inside the station.
In early 2024, construction on the new entry building will begin.
The construction of the new entrance is expected to take 13 months. Once complete, the building will be shrouded until September 2026 to allow the development of the new university campus and public space outside the entrance to be completed.
