Archive for January, 2011

The contractor responsible for starting work on Crossrail Woolwich Station is stuck in the middle of bureaucratic negotiations and red tape, which is looking increasingly likely to hinder the start of the new Crossrail Woolwich Station in south east London, and unless construction work begins on the Woolwich Station site within the next six days, the contractor will find it difficult to meet the revised program dates set out in the Crossrail work schedule.

The contractor, Berkeley Homes Urban Development, is currently embroiled in complex negotiations with Transport for London and unless they can all come to an agreement, construction work at the Crossrail station will not be sufficiently advanced to be able to connect up with the tunnel boring machines from other sections of the Crossrail rail project. The negotiations between the contractor and Transport for London are set to continue over the next few days.

In order to meet the planned dates in the revised constructions schedule, Crossrail has requested that Berkeley Homes commence work as soon as possible, but the contractor has already warned Crossrail that unless an agreement is reached imminently, they will be forced to reprogram or reschedule the work to take into account the new start date. However, they have said they are confident this will be unnecessary and that work on site will be ready to start as previously planned.

Even though in principle funding was agreed with Crossrail some time ago, the final funding arrangements have yet to be agreed between Berkeley Homes, Crossrail, and the Department of Transport.

Crossrail is confident that an agreement with the contractor, Berkeley Homes, will be reached very soon, and in preparation for works on the Woolwich Station site to go ahead, Crossrail has bought any properties in the path of the Crossrail route via a compulsory purchase order.

Although construction work on the new Crossrail Stepney Green Park station is due to begin in March, archaeologists from the Museum of London have been digging on the an archaeological site based around the park and Stepping Stones city farm site in their search for the remains of a 16th century manor house called Worcester House.

The original manor house was built in 1597 and archaeologists have already uncovered the remains of the tower. They expect to recover many more interesting relics as the dig progresses as it is believed that the house later became a Baptist College. 19th Century slum housing was also built on the site.

Before work begins on the Crossrail Stepney Green Park site, local school children have been given a unique opportunity to see what life as an archaeologist is really like. The children were invited to come for a day and learn about the basics of archaeology with some of the archaeologists from the Museum of London. They were given some large sand boxes to dig in, which had been filled with genuine Roman artefacts.

Before work on the Crossrail site begins in March, archaeologists from the Museum of London will be meeting with Crossrail to decide what remains from site need to be removed to make way for the planned 35 metre deep shaft. They have already said that all remains excavated during the dig will be recorded and possibly exhibited at a later date.

The planned deep service shaft will be excavated at the point on the Crossrail line where the lines diverge after departing from Whitechapel Crossrail station. A tunnel is planned on the line heading towards Crossrail Canary Wharf station and a second tunnel will be constructed on the Stratford Crossrail line.

A commission appointed by the Chilean Congress to investigate the Chilean Mine collapse has now published its findings. According to the report, safety failings were behind the disaster that trapped thirty-three men underground for two months last year.

The catastrophic rock fall that caused the Chilean mine disaster took place last August. For many days, nobody believed there could possible be any survivors, but miraculously signs of life were discovered and the rescue teams moved in. For seventy-two days, teams of experts tunnelled down through solid rock to try and reach the men trapped deep underground while the whole world watched and waited. Thankfully for the men and their families, all thirty-three miners survived the ordeal and were pulled free from the remains of the mineshaft that had been their home for two months.

But although the Chilean miner’s story had a happy ending, the Chilean government ordered an investigation into the cause of the disaster. According to the findings of the commission’s report, the mine owners had failed to put adequate safety procedures in place and were more interested in increasing profits that the safety of their men.

The report also points the finger of blame at the Chilean mining regulator as they failed to carry out regular mine inspections and the commission recommends that the regulatory body be reorganised in order to prevent a similar disaster occurring in the future. The government has since been completely exonerated from any associated blame for the disaster.

Many of Chilean miners’ families have since filed claims for compensation to the tune of £17 million against the Chilean mining regulator and mine owners, but although both appear to be at fault, it remains to be seen whether the families of the trapped miners ever receive any money as a result of the disaster.

Following a recent invitation from Network Rail for companies to express an interest in submitting design proposals for the 25 km north-east Shenfield to Maidenhead section of the new Crossrail high speed rail route, three companies have now been short listed for the work.

The three companies who have been short listed by Network Rail and invited to come forward with their proposed designs for the Shenfield section of Crossrail are Tata Steel UK, Amey, and Atkins Limited. However, Network rail has yet to confirm when they will be making their final decision as to which of the three companies have been successful with their bid.

There is various design work planned for the Shenfield to Maidenhead section of the Crossrail route. Planned works include station improvements at Romford and Ilford, plus various other Crossrail station infrastructure improvements, including extra step free access points for disabled passengers, and platform extensions.

The improvement works will help Crossrail to provide passengers with much better stations, more seats on commuter trains, plus a much more reliable service. Robbie Burns, Network Rail Program Director, commented, “Network Rail is making a multi-billion pound investment to transform the existing railway to make Crossrail a success and this design work on Crossrail’s north-east section will prepare the way for new, higher-frequency trains in future years.”

The final cost of Crossrail is estimated to be £16 billion and the high frequency transport scheme is currently scheduled to open in 2018. Once the service is fully operational, twelve trains per hour will be running between Stratford and Shenfield. As well as a much faster commuting time, passengers will also be able to use the Oyster Card ticketing system currently being used on all sectors of public transport in Greater London.

For the last 14 weeks, there Thames Water has been running an ongoing pubic consultation for the £3.2 billion Thames Tunnel scheme, but this period has now ended.

During the consultation, local Thames Water residents had the opportunity to attend several exhibitions about the Thames Tunnel project, as well as take part in various question and answer sessions designed to alleviate local fears about the impact the Thames Tunnel project might have on the area.

The Thames Tunnel consultation process was intended to give local residents the opportunity to offer their viewpoint about the scheme to Thames Water officials. It was also hoped it would give people the chance to “have their say on the preferred route and construction sites” and “understand and influence the development of the project”.

The Thames Tunnel scheme has been designed by Thames Water to help put an end to the ongoing problem of raw sewage leaking into the River Thames during periods of heavy rainfall in the area, largely due to the failure of the outdated Victorian sewerage system beneath London. Once the Thames Tunnel has been completed, levels of sewage pollution will be cut for at least the next 100 years.

Tunnelling work for the proposed Thames Tunnel will take place at a depth of around 75 metres and the completed tunnel will stretch for 32 kilometres across London, emerging near Tower Bridge and heading in three different directions: northeast to connect with the Lee Tunnel; southeast towards Beckton and Greenwich; and towards Beckton Sewage Works.

Local residents face an increase in their annual water rates bill of approximately £65 per year to help fund the anticipated costs of the Thames Tunnel project, but as Thames Water point out, the continued pollution of the River Thames from raw sewage is unacceptable and the Thames Tunnel is seen as the only viable solution.

The results of a geotechnical survey prior to the construction of a new tunnel for the Ottawa Light Rail transport scheme have revealed a few unexpected surprises that engineers were hoping not to find. Very deep levels of solid bedrock have been discovered in some sections of the proposed route, which means the planned tunnel may have to be cut short by as much as one third.

At present, the original tunnel for the Light Rail system was designed to be 3.2 kilometres long. It was planned to run from Lees Avenue to Bronson Avenue, but in light of the results from the geotechnical survey, tunnelling engineers may need to shorten the tunnel by 900 metres in order to avoid the complexities of tunnelling through solid rock. The alternative is to look for a cheaper solution to the problem.

One idea put forward by critics of the tunnelling scheme is to follow a surface rail design such as that currently used by the city of Calgary. However, some engineering specialists think a surface light rail transport scheme is simply not feasible due to the inherent problems caused when trains and motor vehicles are forced to share the same transport routes. If the light rail route is predominantly underground as it passes through the centre of Ottawa, trains would have the right of way and transport issues would more easily be avoided.

Because the light rail scheme in Ottawa is still in the design stages, tunnelling engineers are still looking at various solutions to the tunnelling issues faced. One such solution involves moving the proposed stop for the University of Ottawa from the planned underground location, to a location above the ground.

As well as the issue of bedrock highlighted by the ground survey, other issues faced by engineers include loose rock and a fault line, although these are not considered as serious.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has revealed plans for a Community Infrastructure Levy scheme that could raise as much as £300 million to help fund the Crossrail high speed rail link between Heathrow Airport and the West End and financial districts in London.

The proposed levy scheme will involve a £50 charge payable per metre on new developments containing an internal floor space larger than 100 square metres. The levy will only apply to certain boroughs in London and these include Chelsea, Kensington, Westminster and Camden, plus three others. Boris Johnson has also mentioned extending the levy scheme to include the financial district in London.

There will be a six week consultation process to allow all interested parties to examine details of the scheme. Many business leaders have already expressed concern that if the proposed levy is set too high, it could have an adverse effect on the future development and economic growth in the city of London.

However, Boris Johnson firmly believes that the £50 charge on developers will not damage development potential and the positive contribution made by Crossrail will more than make up for any financial penalty incurred by the proposed levy. Some experts think that the Crossrail high speed rail link could even benefit London by as much as £115 million in the long term.

If the Community Infrastructure Levy goes ahead as planned by Boris Johnson, the scheme will help to raise a large proportion of the £15.9 billion required to fund the Crossrail rail scheme. A planned business rate supplement is also expected to provide £4 billion in funding towards Crossrail.

Crossrail will reach completion in 2018. It is intended to provide a high speed rail link from central London to Heathrow Airport and is the largest construction project in Europe.

Following the previous issue of tender notices for the Farringdon and Paddington Station contracts, Crossrail has now released tender notices for the other four central London Crossrail stations. These include Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Liverpool Street, and Whitechapel.

These four Crossrail station contracts are widely considered to be the most valuable of all the Crossrail station contracts on offer and are worth £950 million in total. They amount to two thirds of the central section of the Crossrail transport project.

Each of the four Crossrail station contracts has been divided up into smaller lots and contractors have the option to bid on smaller lots, or multiple station lots. Crossrail is also keen for contractors to come up with innovative money saving ideas as part of their bids. Interested contractors have until midday on February 14th to submit their bids to Crossrail via the e-portal.

Lots one and two cover Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road stations and are each worth £200 million. The Crossrail Whitechapel contract is worth £250 million, but the largest and most valuable is Liverpool Street station and this is worth £300 million.

The Crossrail station contracts cover general and civils building works as well as a variety of other works, including the construction of the ticket hall structures and any necessary piling and excavation. The station works contracts also cover lifts, escalators, and maintenance of station systems.

The construction of Crossrail Whitechapel station is expected to take 72 months from award of the contract. This will be the longest of the four contracts as the work involves demolition of two bridges crossing London’s overland railway. Tottenham Court Road Station will be the quickest at 42 months from award of contract and Liverpool and Bond Street are expected to take 70 months and 60 months respectively.

In what has come as a shock to many, Crossrail announced yesterday that CEO, Rob Holden, is leaving the company for new challenges after only two years in the role. His announcement comes only a few months after he successfully steered Crossrail safely through the Government spending review and only a week after the large Crossrail tunnelling contracts were announced.

Many consider Rob Holden one of the most experienced managers in British Civil Engineering and his departure will be a big blow to Crossrail. His previous experience managing the construction of the High Speed One Channel Tunnel rail link was considered to be one of the main reasons he was brought in to oversee the Crossrail project.

The explanation given for Rob Holden’s sudden departure from Crossrail, despite having no apparent job lined up to go to, is that he feels Crossrail needs a boss who will be there to see the project through to completion in 2018. However, insiders at Crossrail say he is leaving due to frustrations relating to governance of the project.

Terry Morgan, Crossrail Chairman, will be sorry to see Holden go and has described his performance as “outstanding”. Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, has made a statement that the government remains committed to the Crossrail project and that he is looking forward to working a successor to Rob Holden.

The search will now be on to find a suitably qualified replacement for Rob Holden before he leaves Crossrail at the end of his six month notice period. His replacement will be required to take over the reins as Crossrail enters the important construction phase of the project. Terry Morgan has said there is nobody as yet in the running for the job, but insiders say Mark Bayley, the current CEO of High Speed One, is a potential candidate for the Crossrail job.

Aker Wirth has recently signed a contract with mining giants, Rio Tinto, as part of the innovative Rio Tinto Mine of the Future programme designed to introduce safer processes into the underground mining and tunnelling industry. The contract is for a new tunnel boring machine and includes delivery and testing of the TBM.

The tunnel boring machine in question uses the innovative Mobile Tunnel Miner concept and has been developed as a result of the many years of experience accumulated by Aker Wirth in the field of mining and hard rock tunnelling. The new TBM combines the robustness of a TBM with the flexibility of a roadheader operation and is based on designs first introduced and tested around ten years ago.

The TBM ”…is capable of meeting the challenges set out by Rio Tinto to improve the safety and speed of tunnel construction in underground mining,” a representative of Aker Wirth said. Christoph Kleuters, the CEO of Aker Wirth, added, “We are proud to have this opportunity to partner with Rio Tinto and be part of an important development that may change the face of underground mining.”

The tunnel boring machine is expected to arrive at the Northparkes copper mine in Australia in 2012 where it will be subjected to operational trials and testing should be completed by the end of 2012. If successful, the new TBM should significantly improve modern mining and tunnelling techniques as well as safety below ground.

“This significant new investment offers the possibility for a step-change improvement over conventional drill and blast practices. Depending on rock conditions, this system should provide a capability to excavate at more than double the rate of conventional methods,” said John McGagh, Head of Innovation at Rio Tinto.