In pictures: Go-ahead for Stockport’s £42m transport interchange

The local council has agreed to draft a development agreement with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) for the £42m scheme, which will replace the town’s existing bus station between Stockport’s rail viaduct and the A6.

The council also agreed to grant a new lease to TfGM for the facility and make a compulsory purchase order of the necessary land to allow construction to proceed.

Both the council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority are exploring potential residential, education and other developments that could form part of the new interchange project.

Stockport Council plans to procure associated highways works and a new bridge for buses, which will cross the River Mersey at Astley Street, as advanced work packages for the scheme.

According to council documents, procurement of a design-and-build contractor for these packages is “at an advanced stage”, with a contractor expected to be confirmed in summer 2017.

The interchange forms part of a wider regeneration of Stockport town centre, with the £145m Stockport Exchange commercial and retail development already under way.

Muse is acting as development partner on the scheme, which will provide 370,000 sq ft of offices and leisure facilities once complete.

Phase one of the project – a 1,000 space multi-storey car park – was completed in 2014, while Eric Wright Group has recently completed the second phase: a 50,000 sq ft five-storey office and a 115-bed Holiday Inn.

The scheme is also part of TfGM’s Interchanges programme, which has provided major investment in local transport hubs.

Schemes include a new interchange at Altrincham built by Laing O’Rourke, and a transport hub at Bolton being built by Kier.

Construction News also revealed in February this year that Vinci had beaten two firms to a deal to build Wigan’s new bus station and interchange.