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Crossrail Tunnel Contracts & Tunnelling

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Crossrail Tunnel Contracts & Tunnelling 7 April 2011 MEDIA BRIEFING NOTE: CROSSRAIL TUNNEL CONTRACTS, TUNNELLING STRATEGY AND CROSSRAIL PROGRESS Introduction: A total of 21kms of twin-bore tunnels are required to be constructed to deliver Crossrail. The five tunnels to be constructed are: • Royal Oak to Farringdon west (Drive X) - length of drive approximately 6.2 km • Limmo to Farringdon east (Drive Y) - length of drive approximately 8.3 km • Stepney Green to Pudding Mill Lane (Drive Z) - length of drive approximately 2.7 km • Limmo to Victoria Dock Portal (Drive G) - length of drive approximately 0.9 km • Plumstead to North Woolwich (Drive H) - length of drive approximately 2.6 km All of this adds up to 42km of bored tunnels located below the busy streets of London. Tunnelling activity will get underway in late 2011. In the second quarter of 2012, the first two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will start out on their journey from Royal Oak towards the west of Farringdon station. This will be followed later in the year by the launch of two further tunnel boring machines in Docklands that will head under central London towards the east of Farringdon. Further shorter tunnel drives will take place in the Royal Docks and east London. Teams of dedicated construction workers will be working 24 hours a day to complete the tunnels for Europe's largest civil engineering project with thousands of others employed to upgrade the existing rail network and build major new stations along the central section of the route. The tunnels will weave their way between existing underground lines, sewers, utility tunnels and building foundations from station to station at depths of up to 40m. Tunnel portals will be constructed at Royal Oak, Pudding Mill Lane, North Woolwich, Victoria Dock, and Plumstead. - 1 - Tunnel contract awards: Today’s announcement (7 April 2011) relates to the following tunnelling and portal contracts: • C310 – Thames Tunnel construction (Plumstead to North Woolwich); • C315 – Connaught Tunnel Refurbishment; and • C350 – Pudding Mill Lane Portal. The shortlist invited to submit bids for C310 - Thames Tunnel (Plumstead to North Woolwich) was: • Joint Venture comprising: BAM Nuttall Ltd, Ferrovial Agroman (UK) Ltd, Kier Construction Ltd; • Joint Venture comprising: Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd, Alpine BeMo Tunnelling GmbH, Morgan Sindall (Infrastructure) plc, Vinci Construction Grand Projects; • Joint Venture comprising: Costain Ltd, Skanska Construction UK Ltd, Bilfinger Berger Ingenieurbau GmbH Niederlassung Tunnelbau; • Joint Venture comprising: Laing O'Rourke Construction Ltd, Strabag AG, Bouygues Travaux Publics; and • Joint Venture comprising: Hochtief Construction AG, J Murphy & Sons Ltd. The shortlist invited to submit bids for C315 - Connaught Tunnel were: • Vinci Construction UK Ltd; • Joint Venture comprising: Hochtief Construction AG, J Murphy & Sons Ltd; • BAM Nuttall Ltd; and • Joint Venture comprising: VolkerFitzpatrick Limited, Barhale Construction plc. The shortlist invited to submit bids for C350 - Pudding Mill Lane Portal were: • Vinci Construction UK Ltd; • Carillion Construction Ltd; • Dragados-Sisk Joint Venture; and • Morgan Sindall plc. Major tunnel contract awards – December 2010: In December 2010, Crossrail confirmed the contract awards for the four main tunnelling contracts: • C300 - Western Running Tunnels: Royal Oak to Farringdon; • C305 - Eastern Running Tunnels: Limmo Peninsula to Farringdon; Limmo Peninsula to Victoria Dock and Stepney Green to Pudding Mill Lane; • C410 - Early Access Shafts and Sprayed Concrete Lining Works for Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road stations tunnels; and • C510 - Early Access Shafts & Sprayed Concrete Lining Works for Whitechapel and Liverpool Street stations tunnels. - 2 - The contracts were awarded as follows: C300 – Western Running Tunnels (Royal Oak to Farringdon) Joint venture comprising: BAM Nuttall Ltd, Ferrovial Agroman (UK) Ltd, Kier Construction Ltd. C305 – Eastern Running Tunnels (Limmo Peninsula to Farringdon; Limmo Peninsula to Victoria Dock; Stepney Green to Pudding Mill Lane) Joint venture comprising: Dragados S.A., John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd. C410 – Early Access Shafts and Sprayed Concrete Lining Works for Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road stations tunnels Joint venture comprising: BAM Nuttall Ltd, Ferrovial Agroman (UK) Ltd, Kier Construction Ltd. C510 – Early Access Shafts and Sprayed Concrete Lining Works for Whitechapel and Liverpool Street stations tunnels Joint venture comprising: Alpine BeMo Tunnelling GmbH, Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd, Morgan Sindall (Infrastructure) plc, VINCI Construction Grands Projects. Major tunnel contracts – shortlist: In December 2009, Crossrail confirmed the shortlist of bidders for the two principal tunnel contracts and works for the station platform tunnels at Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Whitechapel and Liverpool Street. The shortlist who submitted bids for C300 (Western Running Tunnels), C305 (Eastern Running Tunnels), C410 (Early Access Shafts & Sprayed Concrete Lining Works at Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road), and C510 (Early Access Shafts & Sprayed Concrete Lining Works at Whitechapel and Liverpool Street) were: • Joint venture comprising: BAM Nuttall Ltd, Ferrovial Agroman (UK) Ltd, Kier Construction Ltd; • Joint venture comprising: Alpine BeMo Tunnelling GmbH, Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd, Morgan Sindall (Infrastructure) plc, VINCI Construction Grands Projects; • Joint venture comprising: Bilfinger Berger (Ingeneirbau GmbH), Costain Ltd, Skanska Construction UK Ltd; • Joint venture comprising: Dragados S.A., John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Ltd; and • Joint venture comprising: Bouygues Travaux Publics S.A, Laing O'Rourke Construction Ltd, Strabag AG, (Bouygues are part of C300 JV only). Tunnel Portal contracts: Five new tunnel portals will be constructed as part of Crossrail at Royal Oak, Pudding Mill Lane, North Woolwich, Victoria Dock and Plumstead. The Western and Eastern running tunnels will have tunnel portals at Royal Oak, Pudding Mill Lane and Victoria Dock. - 3 - The Thames Tunnel between North Woolwich and Plumstead will have tunnel portals constructed at either end in advance of the main tunnelling works. Construction of the first tunnel portal at Royal Oak got underway in January 2010. Costain Skanska JV were awarded the contract to deliver the Royal Oak portal. The North Woolwich Portal and Plumstead Portal is included as part of main works for the C310 Thames Tunnel contract. The remaining Victoria Dock portal construction contract will be awarded later this year. Tunnel construction strategy and sequence: The tunnelling strategy for the western section of the Crossrail route (from Royal Oak Portal to Farringdon) is quite different from the eastern tunnelled sections (between Farringdon and Victoria Dock Portal, and between North Woolwich and Plumstead portals). In the west, the tunnelling strategy proposed by the winning contractor has been adopted. The Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) will be launched at Royal Oak Portal to tunnel towards east of Farringdon, creating the running tunnels first, after which the station tunnels will be enlarged around the running tunnels. These TBMs will pass under station sites at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road and Farringdon. - 4 - In the east (from Limmo Peninsula to Farringdon and Victoria Dock Portal in the southeast), the station tunnels and underground structures will be built before the TBMs pass these locations. The stations located on this section are Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, Canary Wharf and Woolwich. Between North Woolwich and Plumstead Portals, the TBMs will pass through the pre-constructed station box at Woolwich. Drive X (Contract C300) – Royal Oak Portal to Farringdon The first two tunnel boring machines will embark from the portal at Royal Oak towards Farringdon. The TBMs from Royal Oak Portal will pass through the station sites at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, and on to Farringdon east where the cutter heads will be removed and the machines dismantled. At Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road, some Spray Concrete Lining (SCL) works will need to progress simultaneously with main tunnelling. To enable this, when the TBMs pass Bond Street, a cross-over will be installed here. The function of the cross-over will be to divert the TBM excavated material out of one tunnel bore to allow the creation of the SCL station platform in the other. Excavated material from the platform and running tunnels will emerge at Royal Oak Portal rather than be transported by lorry through London’s busy streets. This all helps to minimise disruption to Central London. - 5 - This excavated material will be transported by rail from Royal Oak Portal to a transfer dock where it will be loaded onto river barges bound for development sites for re-use. Crossrail’s new tunnelling strategy significantly reduces the amount of excavated material removed by road, significantly reducing Crossrail lorry journeys on the busy streets of London. Over 85% of Crossrail excavated material will now be transported by either rail or river. Further information about the transportation of excavated material is contained in a later section in this briefing note. Drives Y,Z and G (Contract C305) – Limmo Peninsula in the Royal Docks to Farringdon east and Stepney Green to Pudding Mill Lane Tunnelling for Drives Y and Z will commence slightly later than Drive X. For Drive Z Pudding Mill Lane Portal (C350) will be complete before the TBMs arrive and for Drive Y
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