We are helping to create a new £26m waterside dining concept in Salford. The scheme, which has received approval and is set to create to 150 jobs, will transform the southern waterfront of the Lowry Outlet into a leisure destination attracting visitors from Greater Manchester and beyond.
Named the Watergardens, the development will offer a restaurant terrace and a waterfront promenade connecting the Lowry Outlet to the iconic Millennium Bridge. Its design by Chapman Taylor incorporates biophilic design principles to blend natural features with the urban environment, such as planted landscaping and improved natural light.
Our Civil & Structural Engineering team assisted the design of new structural elements, including the walkway extension, to allow room for external terrace-style seating, a new pedestrian bridge linking the walkway and Millennium Bridge, plus new a new feature restaurant extension at the bottom of Imperial Point tower.
Experts within our business also oversaw the planning application and lent geo-environmental knowledge to site investigations.
Having previously designed the mall when it was originally constructed, our team’s familiarity with the project has offset many of challenges engineers often face with structural refurbishments.
Some of those challenges have included building new structures in contaminated land with many obstructions, such as existing foundations and utilities; building over an existing live substation and obtaining the right to do so; and accommodating structural changes where information is not complete or does not match archived information. To see all of this through, our geo-environment and planning teams supported the scheme.
Other extensive refurbishments are being made to existing areas throughout the mall, requiring structural remediation such as slab and steelwork alterations to accommodate new escalators around the southern entrance. The cinema has been downsized and the unused area is being converted into a single-unit leisure facility.
Jason Pullen, Managing Director of Peel Lifestyle Outlets (which is supporting the £26m investment), said: “The Watergardens will transform this area of the waterfront, bringing a vibrant dining offer [and] enabling people to enjoy the best waterfront views in Greater Manchester.”
Jim Seager, C&S Technical Director at Tetra Tech in Manchester, said: ”This is a fantastic project that offers some real engineering challenges, developing a scheme that works around the existing structure and minimises the disruption to the remaining Outlet.”
The first of the restaurants is set to open in 2020.