Wembley Stadium's 'public transport venue' status undermined by huge coach/car park

Impressive impression?

Readers may remember the boast when the new Wembley Stadium opened that it would be a public transport venue with restrictions on the use of parking spaces. Indeed Brent Council has recently taken planning enforcement action against local schools that supplement their budgets by letting their playgrounds out for event day parking. Budgets which are of course very tight at present and cash which would be used to improve children's education.

So it is ironic then that Quintain have issued a press release announcing a huge (and rather ugly) coach and car park at the Stadium.  This is of course in addition to the multi-storey car park close to the LDO.

I will let Quintain's press release speak for itself:

Quintain have announced details of Europe’s first multi-storey coach parking complex being built on plot SE01, located in the south east end of the Wembley Park development.

The purpose built multi-storey coach parking complex will be the first of its kind and will deliver 290 dedicated coach spaces park over two levels. In addition, a five-storey 734 space car park will be provided above the coach complex, creating revolutionary parking provisions.

In order to manage the unique project, Huber, the German car park Design & Build specialist have been awarded a £41m contract to work alongside O'Keefe to deliver the project and act as the project manager and principle designer. With the groundworks now completed by O’Keefe (£13 million contract value), Huber (£28m contract value) will lead on the above ground construction of the structure through to completion.

At full capacity, the parking complex will accommodate up to 16,500 visitors, representing a major investment in infrastructure and innovative car parking solutions for Wembley Stadium and the SSE Arena, Wembley, as well as the surrounding 85-acre development taking place at Wembley Park.

The coach park will be laid out over two levels, each level with its own entrance. The five-storey, 734 space car parking structure, being built above the coach park, will also have its own entrance. Coaches will be organised according to length, height and weight and when fully utilised the entire structure will be able to accommodate over 1,000 vehicles.

The design has taken inspiration from the Rubik’s Cube, by using innovative engineering and bespoke design to ensure coaches, cars and pedestrians are able to co-exist harmoniously.

Speaking about the Pink car park, Matt Voyce, Executive Director (Construction) of Quintain, said:

“We are very proud to be able to bring forward such a unique and innovative project at Wembley Park.  Working closely with Huber, who has an excellent track record of delivering large scale parking solutions, we very much look forward to welcoming thousands of visitors to Europe’s first multi-story coach parking complex.”

Adding to this, Markus Lauble (Managing Director) of Huber, said:

“Huber Car Park System is a multi-storey car park design and build contractor, this is a unique project within our portfolio and we are delighted to have developed it in very close cooperation with Quintain. It is the vision of Quintain team with the technology of Huber Car Park Systems that have made this project possible.”

Once the parking complex is completed, the operational management of the space will be handled internally by the Wembley Park estates team and will include a bespoke vehicle management and movements plan to ensure smooth parking placements within the structure.
The architectural design of the parking complex was undertaken by Potter Church and Holmes and the project is expected to complete in autumn 2019.