Network Rail yesterday awarded Balfour Beatty a £50m contract to renovate Edinburgh Waverley Station including the installation of 28,000 new glass roof panels.
The new glazed roof will comprise of clear, strengthened panes rather than the current cloudy wired glass, which should ensure more natural light floods the station concourse and platforms.
It should also be easier to clean and maintain, meaning less reliance on artificial light, although new roof lighting is also part of the upgrade package.
In addition, the station’s original Victorian ironwork features will be repaired and repainted while non-essential station furniture, buildings and redundant high level walkways will be removed permanently.
The three year work begins this Spring when a scaffolding ‘crash deck’ will be placed at the east end of the station to support work on the roof.
This will then be moved east to west across the station as the roof works progress. For increased safety, and to keep the working environment separate from passengers, staff and pedestrians, it will also be environmentally sealed.
As well as renovation of the 34,000m2 roof, the contractor will be making repairs and painting steelwork and columns and renovating the Calton and Market Street footbridges.
New lighting will be installed within the main station roof area and a new roof drainage system added.
A redundant bridge link between the north side of the main building and the building at the northern perimeter will be removed. External walls will be renovated and the concourse and platform re-surfaced.
“Throughout the work at Waverley, the station will remain operational and we will work closely with Balfour Beatty to minimise disruption,” said Ron McAulay, Network Rail director, Scotland.
As part of its ongoing revamp of Waverley Station, Network Rail also plans in future to upgrade the Market Street entrance, make improvements to Platforms 8 and 9 and redevelop the Waverley Steps access between the station and Princes Street.