Cardiff's long-awaited city centre bus station has seen huge progress as the project has shot up in recent weeks. The striking curved building at the top of Westgate Street is set to be eight storeys in height consisting of a 14-bay station, hundreds of apartments, two floors of office space and a retail unit.
After years of setbacks, controversy, and delays new pictures show that a lot of work has progressed at the site since the beginning of the new year. The capital of Wales has been without a dedicated bus station since 2015, and residents still have quite a while to wait until it's ready.
With the building continuing to develop, and the Welsh Government reaffirming a completion date in 2022, it won't be until 2023 that passengers can actually use it.
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Pictures taken in recent days show glass windows added to the top seven storeys of the building - thought to be the residential and office space - while work continues on the bus station. The building towers over Central Square, which has seen huge change in recent years including the addition of the new BBC Wales headquarters.
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Many workmen can also still be seen on-site, with traffic management in place surrounding the area. Several different plans for a transport interchange have been put forward and scrapped over the last six years, but work finally started in December 2019.
After the construction is finished the building will be handed to Transport for Wales. After a six to nine-month fit out the bus station should then be ready for passengers to use. The development, being led by Rightacres Property, will include a 14-bay bus station, that will be operated by Transport for Wales, and 318 for-rent apartments — which are understood to be for L&G Homes.
Business Live reports that the original office element of the Interchange scheme was for 90,000 sq ft of new grade A space. However, due to strong tenant interest, and subject to planning, a further two floors will be added to create an eight-storey office scheme, in a move that would increase its space to 120,000 sq ft.
In September 2020 a spokesperson for ISG, the construction company building the bus station, said: “We are progressing well on site, despite the clear challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we hope to maintain this momentum through to completion. Planning permission has also been granted to add a further two floors to the office element of the scheme so we now anticipate completion will be in the fourth quarter of 2022.”
The Welsh Government spent £15m buying land for the bus station and will pay £15m to fit out the building. To get all the latest updates on the bus station and everything else going on in the city, sign up to the CardiffOnline newsletter here.
