ISSUE 4 | September 2013
Crossrail works in your neighbourhood
BACK ON TRACK Welcome to the revamped On Track, the local newsletter that updates you on progress at Liverpool Street. Twice a year, On Track will let you know what Crossrail has been doing in your area and what’s coming up, so that you can see how we are building a world class railway near you. Copies of On Track are sent to residents and businesses near our Liverpool Street station works. It is also available online and at our Visitor Information Centres (details on the back page). We hope you enjoy this first issue in our new style.
WELCOME Hello Liverpool Street! I’ve just celebrated my three month anniversary at Crossrail and, after working in the Middle East for the last six years, it’s great to be back in the heart of London. It’s an honour to join such an important and prestigious infrastructure project which is essential for this great city and the UK as a whole. Since taking over, I have overseen two major milestones in the month of August. We have successfully completed the diaphragm wall at Moorgate and the piling works at Blomfield Street which allows us to get ready for mass excavation on these sites. You can read more on these events on the centre pages. The next twelve months will be very challenging with some key landmarks. Along with the excavations at Moorgate and Blomfield Street we will be completing the new utility corridor at Broadgate and a new London Underground substation to allow us to start the final piles and excavation
Liverpool Street
for the new ticket hall. All of this is ahead of tunnel boring machines (TBMs) Victoria and Elizabeth arriving at the end of 2014 en route to their final destination in Farringdon. To support the site works we will also be carrying out some extensive utility diversions in the roads around our site at Liverpool Street. We are working closely with the utilities companies and the City of London to minimise disruption to the road network and will provide our neighbours with regular information about the work. Down in the tunnels, my fellow Project Manager Colin Niccolls and the contractor BBMV are making good progress with the 8 metre diameter pilot tunnels and forming the new station tunnels, again in readiness for the TBMs to pass through. World class infrastructure projects can only be successful with the support of our local communities, businesses and stakeholders who are affected. Thank you for your patience and continued support. Together we are making London a better place to live and work. Troy Easthorpe Project Manager, Crossrail Liverpool Street
WORKS UPDATE
CLOSE TO THE EDGE
LIVERPOOL STREET Worksite
Liverpool Street Shafts Getting ready to dig
Since 2011, Crossrail has been working little more than a metre away from the Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines at Liverpool Street Underground station. We’ve demolished six-storey buildings to ground level and placed more than 300 piles in the ground – all without disrupting any London Underground services.
BLOMFIELD STREET Worksite
The future Crossrail Liverpool Street station needs two shafts to provide ventilation and emergency access, and house mechanical and electrical equipment for the new ticket halls. Both shafts achieved major structural milestones this summer. At the end of July, the Moorgate shaft team completed the diaphragm walls.
Pile drilling rig at Blomfield Street
The Moorgate worksite is now preparing for the main excavation of the shaft to a depth of 40 metres in readiness for the Crossrail running tunnels. During the remainder of 2013, we will demolish more basement structures, and reduce the wall panels to accommodate a steel reinforced concrete ring beam. These beams add strength and stability to the walls as the future excavations open up the shaft. During excavation, further beams will be installed as the excavation continues to its final depth.
The next few months will see the site being prepared for excavation. We will start by excavating under the top slab via a small hole. Once at the next level down, a new slab is poured, again with a hole in it to allow excavation to commence underneath, and so it continues until the final depth is reached. This method helps to limit ground movement. For both shafts, excavation is due to start in early 2014 with a total of 55,000 cubic metres of material to be removed.
Archaeology dig strikes gold Our archaeology dig at Liverpool Street has uncovered its first treasure. The 16th Century gold coin is thought to have been used as a wealthy person’s pendant. Work to relocate local utilities is providing us with a tantalising glimpse of important finds just a few metres below street level. Experts from Museum of London Archaeology have been revealing secrets of the area’s 2,000 year history. A well-
made Roman road has been found, complete with horseshoes of the era. The nearby 16th Century Bedlam burial ground is one of the UK’s richest repositories for 17th Century crafts. Finds so far have included rare and exotic tortoiseshell and elephant teeth which were used to make fans and trinkets for wealthy Londoners.
Fit for a Queen? LL WA
Installing an over-site Plant removed as pile development at Moorgate
FINSBURY CIRCUS Worksite
LONDON
The diaphragm walls are a mere 1.5 metres from the Hammersmith & City line tunnel in the north, 6 metres from the Northern line in the east and a staggering 400 millimetres from two listed buildings – so some precision engineering was required.
Given the constrained nature of the site the Blomfield team have not used the diaphragm walling technique employed at the Moorgate shaft as there just isn’t enough room for all the plant required. Instead the box is made up of bored piles – 323 in total. We needed to use ten different types of concrete and 45 different steel cage designs to meet the complex piling requirements of the structure. In order to future-proof the design, some of the piles have been designed to take the loading of an oversite development if required.
ELDON STREET
Diaphragm walling at Moorgate
For over six months, Bauer, the specialist sub contractor for BAM Nuttall Kier’s joint venture has been working night and day to complete the panels and meet a demanding programme. Some 53 reinforced concrete panels of approximately 3 metres by 1.5 metres were installed into the ground extending to nearly 60 metres in depth. We have done all we can to minimise noise from the works, especially at night, and thank you for your patience.
Over at the Blomfield site, Laing O’Rourke also reached a major milestone, completing all the piling works to form the foundation for the 40 metre deep Blomfield Box shaft. Bound by buildings on one side and the live London Underground railway line on the other, the only access to the site is the relatively narrow front face onto Blomfield Street, making the logistics particularly challenging.
Working in close proximity to the Tube trains has been a real challenge and one the team has successfully overcome without any disruption to the working railway. Safety of the site and the railway has been maintained through advanced detailed planning and a rigorous approvals process that has been made possible by Crossrail, our contractors and London Underground all working closely together.
MOORG
ATE MOORGATE Worksite
Aerial photo of the Liverpool Street area showing Crossrail work sites
At the Liverpool Street worksite, a corridor is being built in order to safely divert all utilities away from the area of the future Broadgate ticket hall. This includes breaking through an old underground tunnel that curved between the Metropolitan line and Liverpool Street station’s Great Eastern Railway service, known as the Queen Victoria Tunnel. It is said that the Queen Victoria Tunnel was used for special after-hours services carrying the Royal Train from near Buckingham Palace to interchange with services to Sandringham. There are records of services using this tunnel during 1875 and then intermittently until 1904 when it was closed. It is not known for sure how often Queen Victoria actually used this service but if any readers have further information we would love to hear about it. More recently the tunnel was home to the Liverpool Street bus staff canteen and open
Aerial photo showing proximity of works to London Underground trains
all night for crews serving the station. Back in the 1970s it was used by City of London Police, Westminster dustmen and street cleaners, and could get very busy in the small hours. The canteen closed with the redevelopment of Broadgate, the building of the London Underground substation and emergency exits. The Queen Victoria Tunnel passes beneath the Railway Tavern pub in Liverpool Street. Crossrail’s contractor Taylor Woodrow is working outside the pub to break through the top of the tunnel to reinforce it to form part of the utilities corridor. The remainder of the tunnel will eventually accommodate a passageway from the existing London Underground station to the Crossrail station.
Demolition of internal walls within the Queen Victoria Tunnel
Tunnelling tricks at the Circus A temporary 40 metre deep shaft has been sunk beneath Finsbury Circus Gardens to enable construction of the platform tunnels that will link the new Crossrail ticket halls at Moorgate and Liverpool Street. The shaft provides underground access for the construction of more than 1.5km of tunnels and cross passages using sprayed concrete lining techniques.
From the ends of the cross passages, the two 250 metre long platform tunnels will then be dug and the tunnel boring machines will travel through them in late 2014. After completion of the station in 2015 the site will be used for fit-out of the ticket halls. Once all work is completed, in 2017-18, the Finsbury Circus park area will be restored.
To build the station platform tunnels, pilot tunnels are first excavated and then enlarged. From the bottom of the shaft, tunnels branching off in four directions are being constructed to form the central passageways and cross passages at platform level. Crossrail’s contractor BBMV has already completed 60% of the pilot tunnels.
We automatically monitor and check levels at buildings around the site, on the surface and within the tunnels every day. The data from this monitoring is analysed so that any settlement can be countered quickly using compensation grouting.
Compensation grouting tubes at Finsbury Circus
View down the pilot tunnel of the future platform tunnel under Finsbury Circus. A tunnel excavator sits in the cross passage
Investing in the community Crossrail is committed to working with local people during construction so that the benefits of the project can be felt even before the railway opens. With this in mind, our contractors support local groups and services with time, resources or funding. All of our Liverpool Street station contractors have given their time and expertise during 2013. BAM Nuttall Kier (BNK) has continued to support St Luke’s Community Centre in EC1 after it provided a wide screen television for local people to watch the Olympics last year. This year, the contractor found a Spanish speaking employee who volunteered to help a group of elderly Spanish ladies develop their computer skills.
BNK representatives pictured with staff from St Luke’s Community Centre
world of work and look at future career opportunities. This interactive event also included a construction challenge between the schoolchildren and the contractors’ volunteers.
Volunteers from BBMV, the contractor building the Liverpool Street station platform tunnels, took part in Providence Row’s planting day challenge on 22 June, with the aim of creating an urban oasis in inner London. Providence Row is a homelessness charity based on the fringes of the City.
Meanwhile, Taylor Woodrow is working with City Gateway, an organisation that aims to progress young people from east London into employment. To date three students from this scheme have been given the opportunity to carry out work placements in the Liverpool Street site office document control department. One of these work placements who initially became aware of the project through a City Gateway site visit has since been taken on as a Trainee Assistant Administrator.
BNK also took part in ‘Steps to Success’, an event in June for children from three EC1 primary schools, Moreland, Prior Weston and St Luke’s, to help them understand the
You can find out more about the Community Investment Programme and the projects we have helped at: www.crossrail.co.uk/cip
A team of four young Laing O’Rourke employees worked with St Luke’s to supply and fit-out a kitchen utility area with a £7,000 contribution from their employer.
TUNNELLING UPDATE
TBM Victoria is lowered into the shaft at Limmo alongside partner Elizabeth
The two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) that will excavate the Crossrail tunnels running to and from Liverpool Street station are about a quarter of the way through their work. TBM Victoria arrived into the station box at Canary Wharf station on 12 June and set off towards Whitechapel and Liverpool Street on 24 July. TBM Elizabeth is following around one month behind. They are planned to arrive at Liverpool Street in late 2014. You can track tunnelling progress at www.crossrail.co.uk/nearyou
The first tunneller climbs through the cutterhead after TBM Victoria breaks through at Canary Wharf
Key activities at LIVERPOOL STREET 2010 Enabling works commence 2012 Demolitions complete
Moorgate shaft and Blomfield box construction commences
2013 Moorgate shaft diaphragm walls complete
Piling complete for the Blomfield box
2014 Moorgate and Liverpool Street ticket hall construction commences
Tunnel boring machines arrive at Liverpool Street
2015 Tunnel fit out commences
New Crossrail trains replace old rolling stock on services between Liverpool Street and Shenfield
2016 System-wide fit out commences 2017 Liverpool Street station construction complete 2018 Phased opening of Crossrail services through the central area
Get involved
Crossrail events near you OPEN HOUSE
Crossrail Liverpool Street sites will be opening their doors to the public for this year’s Open House weekend. Tours will be available on the hour from 10am to 4pm on Sunday 22 September. For more information please see www.crossrail.co.uk/open
BARBICAN RESIDENTS TUNNELLING BRIEFING
A special meeting for Barbican residents is being held on 24 September at City of London School for Girls. If you are a Barbican resident, contact the Barbican Residents Association on
[email protected] or Crossrail on
[email protected] for more information.
CROSSRAIL BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY FORUMS
Crossrail holds biannual meetings in the City of London to inform residents and businesses about current works. If you would like further information about this, or are interested in attending, please contact
[email protected] The dates of the next meetings are: City of London Residents forum: 14 October 2013 City of London Business forum: 30 October 2013
Crossrail contractors at Liverpool Street BNK (Bam Nuttall Kier Joint Venture) – Moorgate shaft BBMV (Balfour Beatty Morgan Sindall Vinci Joint Venture) – Liverpool Street station tunnels Laing O’Rourke – Liverpool Street main civils, mechanical electrical & plumbing, and fit out Taylor Woodrow – Liverpool Street advance works
CONTACT us We want to ensure that you know everything you want to about Crossrail. We issue this bulletin twice a year and we also send out information sheets about specific works taking place.
VISITOR INFORMATION CENTRES West End 16–18 St Giles High St, WC2H 8LN Open Tuesday and Thursday 11am to 7pm Whitechapel Idea Store, 321 Whitechapel Rd, E1 1BU Open Monday and Wednesday 11am to 7pm
Find out more and join our general or station-specific mailing lists at: WEBSITE
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