Salford Skyscraper Cluster Will Need Major Excavation

When a city has an impressive skyline full of sleek steel and glass towers, the natural consideration for visitors is to look up. Far fewer people will give much thought to how deep the foundations of such buildings must be.

This is, of course, an esoteric fact of structural engineering far better understood by architects and those who work on such sites with their excavators, digging deep foundations to support the monolithic structures that will rise up over the months that follow.

Greater Manchester is one place seeing far more of this kind of excavation work than most places as a skyline already full of gleaming new skyscrapers is set to add many more.

Indeed, reports that another planning application has been submitted would barely register as news now - except when it is something as exceptional as the proposals Henley Investment Management has submitted for a £1 billion cluster in Salford, just across the Irwell from Manchester city centre.

This cluster, featuring 3,300 apartments, would include the UK’s tallest building outside London at 264 m (866 ft) tall. It would also be a remarkable statement for Salford as a city, as it would be higher than any of the new skyscrapers in Manchester.

As things stand, the tallest building in Manchester is the 659 ft Deansgate Square Tower A, although this is set to be exceeded by the 698 ft Lighthouse and, subject to planning permission, Viadux Tower 2, which will be 76 storeys and nearly 800 ft high.

While some deep foundations will need to be dug for such buildings, the growth of the central area of Manchester and Salford will require more construction work to provide the necessary infrastructure, not least as most of the new tall buildings are residential.

Because of the strain this places on rail and tram capacity, a new kind of excavation work could be back on the agenda if metro mayor Andy Burnham gets his way.

Mr Burnham has said a Tube system will be needed in the years ahead to facilitate further growth, an idea that has been floated many times in Manchester’s history but never implemented, the most recent instance being the abandoned 1970s Picc-Vic scheme.