Birmingham's Grand Central shopping centre in numbers

The refurbished New Street station officially opened at the weekend, although work on the platforms is expected to continue for another year

After a five-year project costing £150m, Birmingham's Grand Central shopping centre has opened its doors.

The work has been completed alongside a £600m revamp of the city's New Street Station, which was unveiled on Sunday. But how does the redevelopment measure up?

More than 3,500 construction workers were involved and 6,000 tonnes of concrete was removed from around the former Pallasades shopping centre to allow the new atrium to be built

About 50 million shoppers are expected to visit the centre each year and an estimated 170,000 rail travellers will pass through New Street station every day, making it the busiest station outside London

The roof

• Made of panels of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a fluorine-based plastic that is also recyclable

• The same material is used in the Eden Project biodomes in Cornwall

• Lighter than glass, it is designed to be corrosion resistant and is self-cleaning

• In all, the roof contains 38 sections - each one features its own compressor to create an even layer of air between two layers of ETFE, essentially "inflating" it

• The roof is designed to allow a steady level of sunlight to enter the atrium, while minimising heat loss

Grand Central replaces the Pallasades shopping centre. Originally built in 1971 as part of the reconstruction of New Street station, it was known as the Birmingham Shopping Centre before it was renamed in the 1980s

At 250,000 square feet and costing £35m, the John Lewis store is by far the largest in Grand Central and the firm's biggest outside of London. The store received more than 10,000 applications for the 650 jobs

The name Grand Central was inspired by the original name for New Street Station when it opened in 1854. Similar to its modern day counterpart, Birmingham's Grand Central Station featured an iron and glass roof, which at the time was the largest of its kind in the world