When complete Crossrail’s Liverpool Street Station will serve the City of London and provide interchanges with London Underground’s Northern, Central, Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines. In addition to connections to Stansted airport and National Rail services at Liverpool Street and Moorgate stations.
It will be located below London Underground’s existing Liverpool Street and Moorgate stations with both stations providing access to the Crossrail station.
At the eastern end of the Crossrail station, a new Crossrail ticket hall will be constructed beneath Liverpool Street close to the Broadgate development. The new ticket hall will provide step-free access from street level to the new Crossrail platforms. Nearby, a 40m-deep box structure will be located on Blomfield Street to accommodate ventilation, electrical, mechanical and systems equipment.
At the western end, a further new ticket hall will be built by developing the existing Moorgate station ticket hall. The development in which this is housed also contains a 33m-deep draught relief shaft, which has already been built in its lower basement to aid the Crossrail development.
At the eastern end of the Crossrail station, significant enabling works are required to relocate existing London Underground assets to create the space for new Crossrail infrastructure. This work will involve constructing a replacement Communications Equipment Room (CER), a Powerlink substation, various switch rooms and carrying out a number of railway utility diversions.
When the CER relocation is complete, space will become available to begin a complex series of public utility diversions from the roadway in Liverpool Street into a newly built utility corridor. This will enable construction of the new Broadgate ticket hall at the eastern end of the Crossrail station. Similarly, public utilities will be diverted at the western end.
A section of Finsbury Circus has also been temporarily acquired during the construction of Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station for two purposes; first, to enable construction of the platform tunnels via a temporary construction shaft and second, to accommodate construction facilities including site offices. Following completion of the works, Finsbury Circus will be restored to its original condition.
The design of the station is currently being progressed by teams of consultants appointed back in 2009. The lead design consultant is Mott Macdonald who are responsible for overall station design, including enabling works to create space for the new infrastructure, passenger modelling and space-proofing, architectural, civil and structural, and mechanical and electrical systems that serve the station.
A dedicated Sprayed Concrete Lining (SCL) tunnel design team, also awarded to Mott Macdonald, has been mobilised on the project to standardise the approach to this specialist discipline. The connection between Crossrail and London Underground’s Northern Line at Moorgate involves a particularly challenging SCL stairway construction directly beneath an existing escalator, at deep level, adjacent to the Northern Line platforms.
The design team is working closely with London Underground and industry experts to develop a safe construction method that minimises disruption to rail passengers, and are co-ordinating with other specialist line-wide design teams.
The station design is being progressively advanced through RIBA Stages D, E and F. The two Ticket Hall designs at each end of the station have recently achieved RIBA D stage, the Moorgate Shaft has achieved RIBA E, with all other station elements well advanced into RIBA E design.
The total funding envelope available to deliver Crossrail is £14.8bn. The Crossrail route will pass through 37 stations and run 118 km (73 miles) from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21 km (13 miles) tunnels to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
When Crossrail opens it will increase London’s rail-based transport network capacity by 10%, supporting regeneration and cutting journey times across the city. Crossrail services are due to commence through central London in 2018.
Crossrail is being delivered by Crossrail Limited (CRL). CRL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London and the Crossrail project is jointly sponsored by the Department for Transport and Transport for London.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “This crucial project that I fought for will be of huge importance to the future of our city and these contracts will provide an immediate boost to employment in the UK.”
Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy
In addition to the Crossrail project, the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy (TUCA) has been established in order to provide training for approximately 3,500 people throughout the lifetime of the project.
TUCA opened its doors in early 2012 and as well as providing a number of vocational training courses, one of its first courses will focus on the Tunnel Safety Card. This is a vital training course required for anyone working below ground on the Crossrail project.
Boris Johnson said: “I am a huge supporter of the aims of this academy and I am thrilled that it is now enrolling its first students. At the height of construction many thousands of people will be working on Crossrail, so our new academy in east London will be a vital resource. Crossrail is working closely with job centres along the route to ensure that as many local people as possible are able to learn the skills necessary to play a part in the largest construction project in the southeast for 50 years.”
Rail Minister, Theresa Villiers, added: “Investing in this Academy further emphasises the government’s commitment to rebalancing our economy and promoting the skills our young people need to help Britain compete in the world.
“This academy’s legacy will be a new generation of specialists able to help deliver important infrastructure projects to support growth here and anywhere across the globe.”
Students attending TUCA will include first time entrants to the industry as well as existing Crossrail contractors. In addition to teaching new skills to the next generation of industry workers, those already experienced in specific practices and procedures will be able to gain nationally recognised accreditations and NVQs alongside other training programmes. The academy is valued at £13 million and is one of only two dedicated training facilities in Europe, with the other academy based in Switzerland.
Orbex Solutions ltd
Established for well over a decade, Orbex Solutions is a company specialising in telephone systems, access control and CCTV. From system design and installation, to support and network services Orbex offer a complete end-to-end service for clients across the education and commercial sectors.
Most recently Orbex were appointed by BAM Nuttal to carry out CCTV installation and access control works on Liverpool Street Station. The appointment came after Orbex had impressed on several other stations which are receiving redevelopment as part of the Crossrail investment.
Speaking about the works carried out, Director James Windiate, said:
“We have primarily been involved in the supply and implementation of all CCTV in the station’s sensitive areas. We have also provided access control services for all the roll calls and emergency procedures they have on site. The idea is that in the event of an emergency they can clear everyone off site using iPhones or iPads and use apps to pull off reports of who was where at any one time.
“In order to get the best results we have got together with manufacturers to ensure that the system can produce the information the client wants. A lot of contractors are coming in and out of jobs like this so you really need to be on top of who has been on site for how long, this affects everything from wages to site security.”
When asked what Orbex Solutions pride themselves on, James added: “We pride ourselves on our customer service and we always go that extra mile to ensure our customers receive the best level of care and expertise.”
