The framework of Bradley Stoke’s new shopping mall, attached to the Tesco Extra store currently under construction in the town’s new town centre, is nearing completion. The photo above shows the view from the Bradley Stoke Way side of the complex, looking along the axis of the mall, with what will be the Tesco Extra store on the left and the mall units (over two floors) on the right.
The mall will have three entrances, two at the ends of the main axis (leading from Bradley Stoke Way at one end and the new town square at the other); a third entrance on the side of the complex will provide access from the drop-off point in the bus lane that will enter the site from Bradley Stoke Way.
Indications are that the ground floor of the mall will include ten retail units, with one unit (on the corner nearest Bradley Stoke Way) being given over to a Tesco cafe. The exact configuration of the upper floor remains uncertain, with plans on the South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) website showing eight retail units, while the Alder King marketing brochure shows just two small retail units plus two larger offices and a centre management suite. Planning conditions imposed by SGC require Tesco to actively market one of the upper floor units for use as a dental surgery.
A spokesman for Tesco told The Journal that the size and type of units in the mall would be varied to meet commercial demand, so that it will only be possible to know the final layout “once all the space is taken”.
Elsewhere on the site, changes have been made to the route used by delivery vehicles serving the existing Tesco store. Access from Bradley Stoke Way has now been abandoned in favour of a route which requires vehicles to enter the site from the Three Brooks roundabout, then follow the new access road for a short way before making a right turn across the construction site. This is similar to the route that will be used once the Tesco Extra store is complete, when delivery traffic will turn down the road between the Three Brooks public house and the new Tesco filling station to reach the loading bays of the new store.
A new area of car parking space, to the right of the new access road as the old Tesco store is approached, is expected to come into service this week. It is understood that it will initially be used for contractors’ vehicles, but when the new Tesco Extra store opens in “late autumn” it will be used by the public whilst the old Tesco store is demolished and its car park re-modelled.
Photos: Click a thumbnail image to view a larger version.
There are lots of photos of the construction work at the new town centre in The Journal’s PicasaWeb gallery. For the latest town centre news checkout posts in our New Town Centre category or see the New Town Centre pages listed in the sidebar of the website.
