Developer insists agreed safety protocols were followed prior to incident at 1960s tower on Friday afternoon

Bruntwood has said work on a high-rise office scheme in Manchester will “continue as planned” after part of a building on the site which was being demolished suffered an unplanned collapse.

Alberton

Left: The collapse at Alberton House demollition site, captured on the X social media platform by Jenna Campbell; Right: EPR’s designs for the 19-storey office scheme set to replace Alberton House

The Manchester-based developer said it had followed agreed safety protocols prior to last Friday afternoon’s collapse of the 1960s Alberton House, which was being taken down by demolition contractor PP O’Connor. It added there was no risk to site staff, neighbouring buildings or to the general public.

Pictures posted on social media on Friday afternoon (24 October) showed a large section of the building in ruins and still attached to its protective wrapping.

The site is being redeveloped as a 19-storey office tower called the Alberton which was designed by EPR Architects and approved in 2022. The rest of the project team includes RLB as project manager and QS, Deloitte on planning, Curtins on structures, Ramboll on facades, Curtins on transport, GIA on wind and Planit-IE as landscape architect.

A spokesperson for Bruntwood SciTech said on Friday: “We can confirm that this afternoon there was a partial collapse at Alberton House, which is currently undergoing a full demolition. 

“While we appreciate the noise this generated may have caused some alarm, on a site of this complexity all eventualities are planned for, meaning we were able to follow agreed safety protocols. As such, there was no risk to the on-site team, neighbouring buildings or the general public.

“Contractors PP O’Connor remain on site and work will continue as planned.”

Manchester City Council said its building control team had attended the site and engaged with PP O’Connor on Friday following the collapse.

PP O’Connor said: ”At approximately 2pm on Friday 24 October, during the scheduled demolition of Albert House, there was a partial collapse due to a defect in the existing structure discovered earlier in the week.

“Contingency arrangements were put in place for the potential collapse, including a strict exclusion zone, and there have been no injuries to our workforce or members of the public.

“The resulting debris associated with the collapse was fully contained within the footprint of the site.

”We are in dialogue with the Health and Safety Executive, Building Control and independent structural engineers as we continue to make the site safe and progress with the planned demolition.”