Cantilevering hotel takes shape in Manchester

Requiring 700t of structural steelwork, a new 21-storey hotel at Deansgate, Manchester that cantilevers over the city’s Tramlink, is quickly taking shape.

Sharing a site with a pub, which will remain open throughout the construction work, the hotel also sits adjacent to a viaduct that not only carries tram tracks, but also a delivery access road.

Creating extra space, the project’s steel frame incorporates six trusses along its southern elevation, that create 5m-wide cantilevers from the underside of fourth floor.

“The cantilevers partially over-sail the viaduct and the access road that it carries, but as the Victorian structure is listed, the steel frame does not have any interface with it,” explains Eckersley O’Callaghan Senior Engineer, Artiom Cybulko.

Starting at ground floor, the steel frame has a regular column grid pattern for each of its 21 floors, although due to the confined nature and shape of the site, it does slightly alter in places.

Steel beams support metal decking and a concrete topping to form a composite flooring solution for each level above the ground floor slab.

Working on behalf of main contractor Assured CMS, EvadX is fabricating, supplying and erecting the steelwork.

The Deansgate hotel project is due to complete in August 2025.