Rochdale’s skyline is changing rapidly with the old bus station and car park now consigned to the history books.
The old municipal offices, for years a landmark in the town centre, are now almost completely hidden from view, with scaffolding covering the entire building.
Internal strip out of the building is already underway with the task of removing all the fixtures and fittings continuing for the next few weeks.
Contractors are now getting ready to start deconstructing the 36 year-old structure from top to bottom in a process which is expected to take around five months from start to finish.
At the same time, thousands of tonnes of concrete and metal is being removed from the old bus station site with Connell’s Construction planning to recycle over 90 per cent of the materials produced during demolition.
The final section of the overhead walkway, which runs from the back of M&S to Yorkshire Street, is also set to come down in the next few weeks.
The Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre can still be accessed via the lift at the Baillie Street entrance throughout the works.
The free town centre shuttle bus will also continue to run for another year and will leave stand c in the bus station every 20 minutes between 9.05am and 5.05pm.
Mark Widdup, Director of Economy and Environment at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “It’s impressive to see the town centre looking so visibly different to what it looked like just weeks ago. Our contractors are working at a rapid pace which certainly matches the ambition we have for our town centre. We know that people have waited a long time for a transformed Rochdale town centre and by the end of this year, we will be much closer to putting our plans into action.”
13 May 2014