Bridgestone Starts £37m Trafford Waters First High-Rise

Bridgestone Construction has broken ground on the first high-rise residential scheme at the Trafford Waters site in Manchester, a £37m project that cleared its Gateway 2 review with the Building Safety Regulator.

The scheme, called Anchor Residency, will deliver 208 apartments across two buildings of eight and 13 storeys. It sits within Peel Waters' wider Trafford Waters district, where the regeneration specialist is leading a large-scale transformation of the Manchester Ship Canal-side land.

Leach Rhodes Walker led the architectural design. Thomas Consulting acted as structural engineer and Artec as fire engineer.

Gateway 2 approval marks the second stage of the Building Safety Regulator's gateway process for higher-risk buildings, requiring designs to demonstrate compliance with building safety requirements before construction begins.

Dave Hardman, Preconstruction Director at Bridgestone Construction, credited the project team's early coordination for the sign-off.

"Securing Gateway 2 approval is a fantastic achievement for everyone involved. It demonstrates the strength of our preconstruction process and the collaborative relationships we've built, our consultant teams and the Building Safety Regulator," Hardman said.

"I'd like to thank Leach Rhodes Walker, Thomas Consulting, Artec and the wider project team for their professionalism and commitment throughout the design process. Their collaborative approach has been instrumental in delivering a coordinated design that successfully met the requirements of Gateway 2."

The contractor brings prior residential delivery in the region to the job. Hardman pointed to Worrall Street and Dock 5 as evidence of the firm's track record across Greater Manchester.

"Building on our residential track record across Greater Manchester, including Worrall Street and Dock 5, we're looking forward to bringing the same focus on quality, certainty and delivery to Trafford Waters as construction gets underway," he said.

Anchor Residency now moves from design coordination into delivery, giving Trafford Waters its first vertical residential construction and a test of Bridgestone's stated formula of quality, certainty and delivery at height.