Ramboll, one of the UK’s leading consulting engineering groups, are one of our many partners at the Greater Manchester Economic Growth Conference on the 2nd October. Ahead of the event we hear from Ramboll on what they’re doing to help shape economic growth opportunities in Greater Manchester and the Northern Powerhouse.

Actively engaged to make the Northern Powerhouse a reality

The recently published Liveable City index indicated that Manchester is seeing the biggest improvement of any European city, climbing 16 places to be ranked 35th.

Since Ramboll was founded in 1945, the responsibility for our employees, clients, nature, and society has been an embedded fundamental of our business behaviour. We certainly feel Manchester is a great place to be and a strategically important location for Ramboll. We recognise the exciting period of regeneration and development taking place in Manchester, and the wider Northern Powerhouse region, and we are proud to be a part of it.

So in June we relocated our 60-strong Manchester team to the penthouse of the recently refurbished Grade II listed Arkwright House in Parsonage Gardens, just off Deansgate. This new office space is creating new employment opportunities and widening the areas of expertise within our regional team. It has floor to ceiling glazing, fantastic views across the city and our fit out provides an environment that reflects our Scandinavian heritage and the energy and friendliness of our local team.
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Our multidisciplinary team has operated in Manchester for 20 years and works closely with our offices in Leeds, Chester, Newcastle to help city centres thrive again across the Northern Powerhouse region.

We continue to work on all the things a great global city needs to bring improvements to the quality of life: Great jobs and businesses. Fast and effective transport connections. Strong universities and hospitals, colleges and schools for aspirational families. Green spaces and housing for people and nature flourish. Buildings and spaces for entertainment, culture and sport that makes for a good lifestyle.

Providing award-winning local solutions with unique breadth and depth

Our engineering, design and environmental consultancy provides local solutions with the backing of global expertise, and our success is reflected in a string of prestigious awards this year:

Ramboll ranked 5th in the NCE100 list of top 100 civil engineering companies and won the NCE100 Excellence in Transport award for our contributions to The Mersey Gateway. The judges remarked: “An outstanding example of a long-term collaborative relationship that has delivered a significant transport project…”

Our Geotechnical teams won Consultant of the Year at the Ground Engineering awards, and Ramboll’s Jackie Heath and Sarah Penry won Best Woman Structural Engineer and Best Woman Mentor respectively at the European Women in Construction and Engineering Awards.

2017 saw positive evolution in Ramboll’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) results with 53% improvement on our past years scores against the WISE 10 Steps, and a 13-point score in our first Highways England StART3 assessment. We benchmarked, and confirmed, parity in gender pay in 2017.

Helping inward investors find an appropriate place to be in Manchester

An important part of the company for more than six decades, Ramboll’s Environment & Health practice provides expert support from scientists and engineers with considerable experience in consultancy to provide wide-ranging support to negotiate the full spectrum of associated risk efficiently and with confidence, protecting the value of our clients’ assets.

Ramboll’s environment and health team in Manchester, led by Principal, Jeremy Cork, supports potential inward investors by offering a full range of ‘cradle to grave’ services in the property development cycle. Services range from identifying possible sites, site assessment, due diligence, asset transfer, design and construction, assistance with the safe operation of assets, and help with investment exit strategies and disposal of assets.

For example, on behalf of institutional and other private investors, Ramboll has undertaken numerous environmental site assessment of properties in and around Manchester City Centre, including: 1 Hardman Boulevard, 1 Spinningfields Square, 3 Hardman Square, 26 Spring Gardens, 50 Fountain Street, 57 Market Street, Arkwright House, Building 1, New Bailey, Castlefield House, Clippers Quay, Dale House, Norfolk House, One Portland Street, Optimum House, Skyline 2, Goulden Street and Zenith Building.

At the Shudehill transport interchange and multi-storey car park in Manchester city centre, Ramboll E&H lead a multi-disciplinary team undertaking technical and environmental due diligence services on behalf of Dutch investment management company, Orange IM. A range of services were needed for the purchase of the car park including: building structures, building services, fire engineering, vertical transportation and façade engineering. The site and car park, which provides 777 spaces, and is managed by NCP, consists of two glass buildings and a glass “aerofoil” canopy linking the bus station and the Metrolink stop.

Four kilometres to the east of Manchester city centre, at the Air Products facility in Clayton, as part of the $3.8 billion global acquisition of the US company, Air Products (Performance Materials Division) Inc., Ramboll provided environmental site assessment and regulatory compliance services to Evonik Industries AG. The site was first developed in the 1890’s, and together with the surrounding area has long legacy of chemical production and other industrial uses.  The facility currently is operated under the Environmental Permitting Regime.

Meeting future connectivity needs with transport infrastructure

Ramboll is associated with some of the world’s most renowned infrastructure and transportation projects. We design bridges, tunnels and roads in urban and rural, commercial, industrial, educational and residential contexts, together with landmark buildings for airports and railway stations.

We’re helping to build High Speed 2, Phase 2, the most important investment in the North for a century, and after more than 15 years of work with Halton Borough Council, our project managers met The Queen at the recent opening of the Mersey Gateway crossing in Runcorn.

Ramboll is proud to have led the Design Joint Venture for he Queensferry Crossing which links Edinburgh with the county of Fife.  It is one of the most striking engineering icons of the twenty-first century, the UK’s tallest bridge and the world’s longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge.

Our rail teams have been working on a major programme of assessment of Victorian arch viaducts as part of the Northern Hub rail improvement programme, and we played a key role as designer in the complex replacement of Chapel Street bridge, Salford.

The huge roads investment programme we’ve just started on will see upgrades to the M62, M1, A1 in Newcastle and Gateshead.

We’re also working with Liverpool City Council to transform the Atlantic Gateway concept into reality with our designs for the new Liverpool Cruise Terminal at Princes Dock.

By 2050 the Government aims to ensure that almost every car and van on UK roads will be zero-emission and Ramboll’s Building Services Design Excellence Leader, Adam Selvey provides a forward-looking approach to what this means for our cities.

Rapid growth in electric vehicle sales will require vehicle-charging infrastructure to match. We will have to change the way we refuel our vehicles, and service stations will no longer be the only place to do this. Adam suggests in future when we talk about vehicle charging points, we will be thinking in terms of mile of range every hour (MREH) connected instead of kWh, and we need to start planning electricity charging infrastructure to meet the relatively undefined needs 20 years from now.

Designing destinations for attracting and retaining talent

Great cities need creative, cultural, beautiful places to attract innovators and entrepreneurs, and Ramboll’s Building Structures and Services engineers design hundreds of buildings in the UK every year. Our passion for design and creativity has led us to working with an array of world leading architects and clients to realise the ambitions for their projects.

In Manchester our project portfolio includes: The National Graphene Institute, Graphene Engineering & Innovation Centre, Sir Henry Royce Institute, for The University of Manchester; Manchester Town Hall Refurbishment, John Rylands Library, Irwell City Park, the Whitworth Art Gallery, CitySuites apartment, Excelsior Works, Manchester New Square, Hilton Garden Inn at Old Trafford, and significant offices at Brazennose House, First Street, Greengate 100 & 101.

MediaCity is now the biggest digital hub in Europe outside London, and the award winning MediaCity footbridge was designed by Ramboll bridge engineers in association with Wilkinson Eyre Architects.

In Liverpool our projects include the Tate in Liverpool, John Moores University Design Academy, Alexandra Tower and the new Liverpool Cruise Terminal.

Elsewhere in the North Our building designs for world-class arts and culture include: Opera North in Leeds, The University of Sheffield’s Arts Tower Refurbishment, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and the new Hepworth over in Wakefield.

Delivering sustainable energy networks for communities

With fuel poverty posing a significant issue in many cities, we need to capitalise on large scale advantages that are natural in a city. We work on energy strategies with the supply chain, which focus on integrated solutions for urban design, energy, buildings and transport.

Ramboll’s Energy experts secured major roles on Lynemouth Power Station coal to biomass conversion, and as special adviser for the design and development of the Immingham Renewable Fuels Terminal (IRFT).

Our consultants are shaping a low carbon future energy design in the heart of our UK cities with projects including: District heating masterplan for the Greater Manchester Area, Burbo Bank Windfarm, Liverpool Bay, near Sefton; Waste-to-Energy Facility, Isle of Man; Waste-to- Energy Facility, Lincolnshire.

Invigorating the public realm – Civic and Historic, including Our Town Hall project

Our experience in the design of public buildings includes new-build and refurbishment schemes for many different end uses. They require a deep understanding of the requirements of the professionals who use them, the needs of the public who visit them and the societies they serve.

Appointed by Manchester City Council, Ramboll is providing a range of engineering services across the Our Town Hall project including structural and civil engineering for the 140-year old Grade I-listed Manchester Town Hall, the enhancement of Albert Square, and highways and transportation services for the surrounding public realm. The works will take place over a seven-year period and will demand real expertise and dedication from all involved.

Gary Willis, Ramboll’s project lead commented: “We are immensely proud to be working closely with Planit-ie and the rest of the team to re-invigorate and enhance Albert Square as part of the Our Town Hall Project.”

Commenting on Ramboll’s appointment Greig Kirker, Ramboll Director for Buildings said “Manchester Town Hall and Albert Square are vital civic facilities for the City, we are extremely proud to be appointed to be part of a fantastic team to deliver Manchester City Council’s ambitions to celebrate and restore these historic assets.”

Other notable projects include Manchester Cathedral, John Rylands Library, Museum of Science & Industry the award winning Eastgate and City Walls conservation in Chester.

Supporting The Industrial Strategy

Ramboll’s involvement in many of the massive investments all over the North supports the Government’s 2017 Industrial Strategy, which seeks to boost productivity and earning power of people across the UK. We have been appointed by Siemens to design the wind turbine facility in Hull and have major roles in: The Northern Hub rail improvement programme; Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre (GEIC); Liverpool’s new deep-water port; and HS2 phase 2.

Creating value for our clients through innovation and digitalisation

To be able to efficiently deliver needed infrastructure and housing across the country, we believe the industry needs to transform. Indeed, Mark Farmer’s report captioned the need to ‘modernise or die’.

Ramboll believes that increasing productivity across the industry requires challenging the conventional approaches and transforming the way we work. The industry needs to welcome good new ideas and better collaborate to demonstrate to clients the evidence supporting new approaches – this will in turn incite real change.

Ramboll is recognised for our efforts to challenge the conventional through our digital design expertise, strongly coupled with our strength in offsite construction. Our Digital Team is formed of both digital experts and highly experienced engineers, this ensures our toolkit represents the latest in digital possibilities, whilst being anchored and backed by decades of engineering expertise.

We focus our digital toolkit at areas where we can really make a difference and bring value to our clients. For example, our tools give a much deeper understanding of a project in the early stages. This serves to improve project predictability, helps to de-risk a project and generally enables better informed early-stage decision making. Our tools also rapidly explore design options and can compress design time from weeks to days, with the ability to immediately test the impact of proposed design changes. Put such capability together with our vast experience in offsite construction, and you can really see the difference to programme time and materials.

Our innovation in digital design and offsite construction expertise has been ratified by a number of industry awards. We won the accolade of ‘Technology Champion of the Year’ at the Consulting and Engineering Awards (ACE), the title of ‘Best use of Technology – driving efficiency through design’ at the NCE TechFest, and won the Offsite category at the Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards where the judges said: “The evangelical approach of Ramboll to pursue the most efficient offsite construction solutions is inspiring. They have a burning commitment, an obsession almost, to design out inefficiencies whilst at the same time achieving the highest possible quality outcomes.”

The Greater Manchester Economic Growth Conference takes place at Manchester Central on the 2nd October.

Tickets can be purchased here.
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