Earth moves as diggers roll on to Stoke bus station site

WORK has started on Stoke’s new bus station – widely viewed as the gateway to the city’s planned large scale shopping and leisure development plans.

A team of excavators have moved on to the John Street site and they will move more than 3500m3 of earth to prepare the foundations needed to support the new building.

The work, which is expected to take ten weeks to complete, is being carried out by principal contractor VINCI construction UK.

Mark Thomas, regional director, VINCI Construction UK Building Division – North, said: “The ground breaking ceremony is an exciting event for Stoke-on-Trent and VINCI Construction UK. It represents the start of a challenging and significant redevelopment of the new city centre bus facility and will open the gates to the £350m redevelopment of a new shopping and leisure complex in Stoke-on-Trent.”

Once the foundations are complete, the next step will be creating the bus drivers’ accommodation building before work starts on erecting the station’s main bus concourse.