London & South East Premier Rail

Bridge lifted into place at Custom House station

Premier Construction Hospitality Rail- No Photo
Written by Roma Publications

A 34 metre long bridge has been installed as part of the construction of a new Crossrail station at Custom House, linking the station with ExCeL London.

The new structure was lifted into place in three sections by two huge cranes with a combined weight of nearly 1000 tonnes. The bridge was fabricated in Dublin, painted in Widnes, Cheshire and then transported to the Custom House site in London under police escort.

The construction of the new station is almost half complete. Large sections of the station have been manufactured in Laing O’Rourke’s Explore Industrial Park in Steetley, near Sheffield, and then transported more than 130 miles to east London and assembled on site. This process ensures safer construction and saves time, with disruption to residents, existing rail services and the nearby ExCeL London conference centre minimised as far as possible.

Mujahid Khalid, Project Manager for Custom House said:

“Installing this huge bridge was a vital part of our construction programme here at Custom House. The new station is rapidly taking shape – we expect the outline structure to be completed by the beginning of next year, after which the process of fitting out the station will begin in earnest.”

With Crossrail, the journey between Custom House and Bond Street will be around 10 minutes quicker and passengers travelling to and from Heathrow will be able to reduce their journeys by more than 30 minutes. When it opens in 2018, Custom House station will be run by Transport for London as part of London’s integrated transport network.

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Roma Publications