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SPECIAL REPORT A PROMOTION SOLVING THE ‘MORE FOR LESS’ EQUATION Commitment and innovation are key to the success of Taylor Woodrow’s recent Underground feats, the fi rm’s TfL Sector Director JEZ HASKINS tells PAUL STEPHEN n a city where Transport for London’s Says Haskins: “A focus on detail, respect, motto is ‘every journey matters’, innovation and relationships is at the heart leading civil engineering fi rm Taylor of our approach. The scale of these upgrades Woodrow’s challenge is to deliver means that disruption is inevitable. Our Isophisticated infrastructure upgrades while job is to come up with solutions that not simultaneously keeping Londoners on the only deliver the best value for our customer, move. but make the whole process easier on Working in joint venture with BAM passengers, traffi c, residents and businesses Nuttall, the team has done just that by wherever we can.” completing the recent upgrade of Tottenham The importance of the road network Court Road Tube station, closely followed by around Tottenham Court Road Station the upgrade of Victoria Tube station, which is meant that many complex traffi c due for completion in 2018. management arrangements were needed to Tottenham Court Road Tube station’s expanded ticket hall is now open Both projects are integral to increasing keep traffi c moving throughout the various ahead of Elizabeth Line services beginning next year. TAYLOR WOODROW. capacity on the London Underground, which stages of the project. The team developed is experiencing strong levels of passenger and maintained close relationships growth year on year. with stakeholders, undertaking detailed Haskins explains: “The existing platform Meanwhile, over at Victoria, the station underpin large sections of the tunnel walls parties. It reduced delivery costs, mitigated It’s expected that Tottenham Court Road collaborative planning that would take tunnels are twin bores with cast iron serves more passengers than Heathrow in six segments to form supporting beams. risk, and signifi cantly reduced passenger will accommodate up to 200,000 passengers everyone’s needs into account. It’s an area segmental linings, located one metre below Airport each year and is located at the centre This would be primarily constructed from disruption. a day as a key interchange station with the undergoing major development, and which and adjacent to a large Victorian brick of a major transport interchange, woven within the D&C tunnel, and would require The upgrade’s design also involved six Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) coming into use also relies on maintaining footfall to its retail sewer. The sewer could not be moved or around a dense population of residents and a minimum of 17 weekend track closures of points at which the new tunnels would in December 2018, and perhaps Crossrail 2 outlets. Not disrupting their operations was, disturbed without risking leakage. The stakeholders, including two of the capital’s the D&C line. This was unacceptable to the break into the existing station tunnels. The in the future. The team has built a new ticket therefore, of primary importance to the team. solution included driving over 90 horizontal long-standing and Grade 2-listed theatres. team, due to the level of disruption and risk team successfully incorporated ‘propless’ hall that is six times larger than the original, Below the surface, two new overbridges steel piles of up to 20m in length from the The team are providing step-free access of overrun due to the nature of the work. connections in the design to remove and provided step-free access from street to were constructed above the existing Central adjacent Royal Mail Rail tunnel that is no while almost doubling the size of the A propped slab was developed that the need for any temporary support in platform by installing eight new escalators Line platform tunnels to expand capacity for longer in service to form a support raft existing Southern ticket hall. They have moved the focus of construction from the station at these points, maximising and six new lifts. pedestrian access from a new Central Line beneath the sewer. already opened a new Northern ticket hall the operational D&C tunnel and into the operational space throughout the works. All works have been conducted while passenger tunnel. “In the original design, the overbridge and constructed approximately 300m of adjacent new link tunnels below, thereby Haskins concludes: “With the London maintaining the operation of the station The scale of the challenge was enormous tunnel was to be driven using traditional concrete-lined link tunnels between the two reducing the requirement to close the population growing at a rate of twice that of below ground, and the road network above but, undaunted, the team rose to it by timber handworks, a slow and manual halls. railway to passenger traffi c. the rest of the UK, the demand for constant ground; this includes one of the busiest road carefully devising an innovative and bespoke process. However, the team worked with Over the seven-year project (which This change in the construction approach and effi cient transport is high. Upgrades junctions in Central London. solution. civil engineering fi rms OTB, Halcrow commenced in 2011), they will have safely meant that the propped slab could be such as Tottenham Court Road and Victoria and Dr Sauer & Partners to develop an accommodated approximately 595 million constructed in a six-day blockade over are essential in meeting this growth. alternative design. This involved a machine- passengers and 61 million vehicles through the Christmas period, which was already “TfL aspires to deliver more for less, as excavated shotcrete cavern spanning over their worksites while transforming this vital scheduled for track work shared with other funding for major capital projects becomes the crown of the platform tunnels, which node in the transport network. harder to secure and ever more projects enabled London Underground to continue Within the station, the District and Circle The team were compete for the available investment. So operating a full service on the Central Line lines (D&C) underpass was integral to the ensuring that we apply the lessons learnt below. project as it essentially linked the extended the first to work on from projects such as Tottenham Court Road “As well as being the fi rst project to install South ticket hall to the new North ticket hall. and Victoria will be essential. Projects such a shotcrete cavern over a live operational However, the dimension from the top of the a sprayed concrete as these, delivered by committed teams railway, the team also had to cut out the running rails to the top of the underpass roof over seven or more years now set the new crown of the Central Line tunnel and slab was just 0.6m, so innovative thinking cavern directly above minimum level of expectation from which install the permanent overbridge beams was needed to give enough clearance for future projects can build upon to introduce during two 52-hour possessions. While the construction while maintaining the London a live platform during the next level of innovation, collaborative works required exceptionally detailed and Underground Standard requirements of a working and delivery effi ciencies. meticulous planning by all involved, in the ‘step free’ tunnel. traffic hours. “Exciting times are ahead and we are very end it proved simpler, quicker and safer than The original solution was to support much looking forward to being involved in Victoria station upgrade’s propped slab, just 0.6 metres below the running rails of the District alternative traditional techniques, and meant the D&C tracks with concrete walls Jez Haskins, future challenging major projects to support and Circle Lines. TAYLOR WOODROW. less ground movement.” perpendicular to the track, and segmentally TfL Sector Director, Taylor Woodrow London’s future growth.” ■ 52 53.