east london line ReBoRn MaJoR PRoJeCt RePoRt london’s new Railway PLanning, design and construction of a new 10km raiL route for 27|05|10 London overground 24 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER 27.05.1O | www.nce.co.uk www.nce.co.uk | 27.05.10 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER 25 EAST LONDON LINE: INTRODUCTION City slicker: The East London Line is a east end vital new link to London’s financial heart efficiency This week the London Overground East London Line opened a full service from West Croydon in south London “We are changing the “As a client team, we to Dalston in the north. In a remarkable face of London and worked very hard the way we think of towards letting the achievement, the project has been and use London in a main works contract delivered early. Jackie Whitelaw reports. permanent way. to programme” It is really dramatic” Peter Richards, Howard Smith, infrastructure director at Surrey Quays to railway at Old Kent Road will allow a western London Rail London Overground east london trip to Clapham Junction via line REBORN Peckham Rye and Wandsworth Road and link to the Overground MAJOR Clapham Junction to Willesden were about to run out, and then existing infrastructure and main Junction Line. the Olympics came along, which works structures and rail sys- PROJECT The capital will have an outer finally tipped the balance and we tems to Balfour Beatty Carillion REPORT orbital metro railway under the could get on with building the as our main works contractor. banner of London Overground, project,” Smith says. “That is why we went for a interconnecting along the way Peter Richards was brought single NEC3 design and build with its Underground lines and in from the SRA to run the job main works contract. ne day after the serving 20 of its 33 boroughs; as infrastructure director for the “It has meant that BBCJV opening of the core and commuters will have oppor- LONDON OVERGROUND: THE FUTURE WHO’S WHO upgrade the East London Un- now dubbed London Over- has managed the interfaces, and route of the London tunities aplenty to avoid central derground Line that ran from ground, along with Mike Stubbs all the responsibility has rested Overground East bottlenecks when they are trying Client London Overground for Shoreditch to New Cross Gate as engineering director, and they with one party to get on and do O Transport for London London Line last month, pas- to cross the city. since 1997. London Underground got stuck into design. the whole thing.” OVERGROUND Other parties London sengers were wandering around The key to creating this will Blackhorse Road Underground, Network Rail had the idea to take a railway There had been a brief flirta- When Richards set up the job wide-eyed, taking in the wonder have been a £1bn Transport for East to Contractor Balfour Beatty into Hackney on a disused tion with funding the route he wanted to create momentum, of the capital’s newest rail route. London investment in infra- Barking Carillion joint venture viaduct that had once carried the through private finance. “But so he formed an integrated client Londoners who know the structure and new rolling stock. (BBCJV) North London Overground Line the ELL is a grey asset,” Smith team to manage the job and Gospel Contractor’s designers Scott detail of the Underground better This has reinvigorated and North West Oak from Broad Street Station, which says. “There is a lot of old in- drive its progress. This included than their bank pin numbers expanded the old East London to Watford Highbury & Wilson, Tony Gee & Partners had disappeared under the frastructure it would have been himself, Parsons Brincker- Junction Islington were cooing contentedly to Line Tube line, reusing Victorian West Hampstead Programme manager Parsons Broadgate development in 1986. difficult to box up for PFI, and a hoff’s Ashok Kothari as head of Stonebridge Park themselves while looking at a infrastructure and introducing Dalston Junction Brinckerhoff It got Transport & Works Act PFI takes time to put together.” programme management and Harlesden Haggerston Client’s technical adviser Mott map of the route which revealed some new modern landmarks Stratford (TWA) powers for the scheme, With the 2012 Olympics fast ap- designers from Mott MacDonald Willesden Queen’s Park Hoxton MacDonald a whole new circuit board of along the way. Junction Kensal Green Euston Shoreditch High Street Rolling stock Bombardier which was then expanded again proaching, it was decided to go as technical adviser to the travel possibilities. As the first There are going to be huge Whitechapel Operator LOROL when it was realised the railway for a design and build option. project. section of ELL opened they benefits in terms of regeneration CENTRAL LONDON Shadwell could interconnect with the It was a good decision. The Refurbishment work along could go from Dalston in Hack- and new jobs for some of the Shepherd’s Bush North London Line. Another scheme, built by a Balfour Beatty the route on some of the older ney in the north, south to the less developed parts of the City, Kensington (Olympia) Canada Water EAST LONDON LINE IN BRIEF Transport & Works Act was ac- Carillion joint venture (BBCJV), structures like the Kingsland Docklands at Canada Water and rail-deprived Hackney will at Gunnersbury Surrey Quays quired, and as the project by that opened early on 23 May. BBCJV Viaduct was let as enabling West Brompton Signalling,communications and then on to New Cross. From this last have a metro, and east and Queens Road stage had effectively become won the contract in October works contracts to Murphy and week, since the full line opened southeast London will acquire Peckham New Cross power systems, 3.5km of new part of Overground rather than 2006, started design immedi- Taylor Woodrow (now Vinci Denmark Hill on 23 May, the route will take some life changing infrastruc- Kew New or refurbished viaduct from Underground rail, it was passed ately, and then started the major Construction). them as far into the south Lon- ture. Gardens Cross Brockley Whitechapel to Dalston Junction; to the newly formed Strategic structures in 2007. It got onto the “Refurbishment is risky and Clapham Clapham Gate don suburbs as West Croydon Around 33M passengers are Junction High Street Peckham 3.2km of track in tunnel south of Rail Authority (SRA) to manage. tunnel and south sections of the it was prudent to do some of and Crystal Palace. expected to be using the route To Richmond Rye Honor Oak Park Whitechapel to Surrey Quay ELL plans languished there site when the old East London that first before we let the bigger By early next year when phase every year by 2011, rising to a Forest Hill New stations at Dalston without a champion. But over Underground was closed in contract,” Richards says. 1a of the East London Line projected 39M by 2016. East London Line is vital for creating Junction, Haggerston, Hoxton at Transport for London it did December 2007 and handed over “And then, as a client team, opens, Croydon will have a direct “The really good part of this an outer orbital railway around the Sydenham and Shoreditch High Street; have its backers – Smith and his in late January 2008. we worked very hard towards connection to Highbury and job,” says London Rail chief capital. Phase 1 opened on 23 May. Crystal Palace Penge West refurbishments at Whitechapel, managing director Ian Brown “From the start, we stressed to letting the main works contract Islington, and at Dalston travel- executive Howard Smith, under Anerley Shadwell, Wapping, Rotherhithe at TfL’s developing London Rail everyone that this job is about to programme. lers will be able to switch onto a who’s remit the East London and Surrey Quays; an division in particular. And when delivering an operational railway “We didn’t let ourselves slip. KEY newly upgraded North London Line falls, “is that we are chang- Norwood Junction operational control centre; the SRA wound up and the route – infrastructure, rolling stock By doing that we created float Line to go east to Stratford and ing the face of London and the Phase 1 opened 23 May 2010 depot; and 44 four car was bequeathed to TfL in 2004 and operations,” says Richards. for the rest of the project and the Olympics or west to Willes- way we think of and use London Phase 1a completed by 2011 Electrostar 378 trains – 20 for they fought for, and won the “We have managed the integra- that has helped us come in early. den Junction and Richmond. in a permanent way. It is really Phase 2 completed by 2012 West Croydon the East London Line and 24 for funding. tion between these aspects and We are delighted to have opened And by 2012, construction of a dramatic.” the North London Line. “There was pressure to make given the responsibility for man- on 23 May, ahead of a pro- link from the East London Line There has been a plan to a decision as the TWA powers aging the interface between the gramme set back in 2004.” 26 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER 27.05.1O | www.nce.co.uk www.nce.co.uk | 27.05.10 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER 27 EAST LONDON LINE: MaNagement MANAGING THE TEAMS Team work: The close cooperation culture of the job As BBCJV project director, Mike or £1.5M a day. has been vital to successful Casebourne has had to manage The job was divided into four construction of complex projects Working 640 professional staff, and 600 construction sections under the like Dalston Junction station designers off site in the offices of control of four BBCJV senior project Scott Wilson and Tony Gee and managers; northern civils under other designers.