Archive for March, 2011

An announcement by Crossrail has confirmed the names of the contractors on the shortlist to submit tenders for the contract to supply Crossrail with rolling stock and depot facilities. The companies listed are Alstom, Hitachi, Bombardier, CAF, and Siemens.

Chief Executive at Crossrail Limited, Rob Holden said in reference to the contract, “Work continues to finalise our detailed requirements for the new trains and we expect that short listed companies will be invited to submit bids in late 2011 with a view to awarding a contract in late 2013.”

Sixty EMUs are planned for the new Crossrail high speed rail service and these will be designated as Class 345. In order to cope with the expected high numbers of passengers using the Crossrail service, the new rolling stock fleet will be comprised of high capacity trains designed to cope with 1500 passengers.

It was decided in the earlier planning stages of the Crossrail project that Crossrail would not take the risk on a new and revolutionary train design; instead it has chosen to utilise existing train technology already in use in several other countries. This will help to ensure good value for money as opposed to pouring money into the development of new technology. All contractors bidding on the £1 billion contract for rolling stock and depot facilities will be expected to make their own finance arrangements as part of the tender process.

Crossrail is already well on the way and several of the major tunnelling contracts were awarded last year. Further Crossrail station and tunnelling contracts will be awarded later on this year. Crossrail is expected to be completed in 2018 and passengers can look forward to a high speed rail connection between central London and Shenfield, Abbey Wood, Maidenhead and Heathrow.

With a final cost of 804 million Euros, the Dublin port Tunnel now has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive piece of infrastructure in Ireland. Extensive delays have been blamed for the 50% increase of costs on the project: the original budget for the tunnel project was set for 535 million Euros, but according to documents seen by the Irish Independent newspaper, costs had begun to spiral out of control less than fifteen months before the official opening of the port tunnel.

One of the main reasons for the costs overruns was a claim for additional payments made by the main contractor. He cited contract variations, time delays and the increased cost of materials as a reason for claiming extra money on top of the original agreed budget.

The main contractor on the Dublin Port Tunnel was a joint venture consortium made up of a Japanese company, Nishimatsu Construction Company; a UK based company, Mowlem and Company; and an Irish civil engineering firm, Irishenco Construction.

According to the press report, the main contractor initially put in high claims for additional payments, but these were contested and following careful examination of the evidence, the amounts claimed were significantly reduced. In the wake of the cost overrun issues, a new form of contract has been devised for future major road projects in Ireland. This will be based on an agreed price at the beginning of the contract and any future cost overruns will have to be met by the main contractor.

The twin bore Dublin Port tunnel first opened in 2006—six years after construction work first began. It was designed to take some of the heavy goods traffic away from Dublin city centre via the M1 link between the city and the port.

BAA has announced their approval of plans to channel the Heathrow Express services through new Crossrail tunnels. Colin Matthews, chief executive of BAA has made a number of positive comments about the proposed scheme at the recent Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum and he said that the potential plan for an extension of the Heathrow Express service further east was one which he was now prepared to agree to with “maximum enthusiasm”.

Network Rail carried out London and South East route stabilisation study last year and the results indicated that by extending the Heathrow Express service beyond Paddington Station (where it is currently terminated), passengers would not need to change to a different train and therefore would be experience a smoother journey.

The proposed plan for the Heathrow Express service to be linked in with Crossrail had been raised previously but BAA resisted. They objected to the legislation authorising the line, as they believed that the Heathrow Express service would be taken over by Transport for London as a result. However, it appears that BAA has had a change of heart and is now much happier with the idea.

Colin Matthews said, “The opportunity of Heathrow Express going forward with Crossrail, to make sure you can get from Heathrow not just to Paddington but to other destinations in London, is going to be great.”

Crossrail is set to reach completion in 2018 and once the high speed rail service is fully operational passengers can expect as many as twelve trains operating on the line per hour during peak times and a fast service that reaches central London in around 45 minutes. Trains on the Great Eastern Main line will run from Shenfield in the east to Maidenhead and Abbey wood in the west.

Network Rail has awarded a major Crossrail design contract to Atkins covering the majority of the northeast section of the planned Crossrail route between Shenfield and Stratford.

The works will be extremely varied and the design contract will cover station improvements at eight Crossrail stations along the line including platform extensions and step free access. Other planned infrastructure improvements include designing new footbridges and remodelling overhead lines, turnback facilities and extra train stabling capacity to help improve reliability of services.

Network Rail is responsible for the delivery of all sections of Crossrail that will be running on existing sections of the network. Work covered by Network Rail includes more than 70 kilometres of existing track and twenty-eight stations along the Crossrail route between Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east and Maidenhead in the west.

Once the new Crossrail high speed rail network is up and running in 2018, passengers can expect a faster service with more frequent trains. Network Rail is making a multi million pound investment in the Crossrail and the existing stations on the new Crossrail route will be significantly upgraded and facilities for commuters will be greatly enhanced.

Robbie Burns, Network Rail’s programme director said: “Crossrail is vital for London’s economy, bringing an additional 1.5m people within a 45-minute commute of the capital’s key business districts and improving journeys for many millions more.”

Passengers on the Crossrail route will soon be able to reach central London within forty-five minutes, which will help to improve the economy in the greater London area. At its peak, there will be twelve Crossrail trains per hour running in each direction on the Great Eastern Main Line between London and Shenfield and millions of people will see their journeys into the centre of London greatly improved.

Florentine art experts are concerned that tunnelling work planned for this summer could affect the famous statue of David sculpted by Michelangelo. Work on the planned upgrades to the main station in Florence is expected to commence this summer. A new underground station and 6.4 km tunnel will be built beneath the existing Firenze Santa Maria Novella Station to add an additional high speed line between Florence, Rome and Milan. The new tunnel will be excavated less that 600 metres from the location of the statue of David and an expert in underground construction has expressed concerns that the statue could be affected by the work.

Michelangelo’s David is arguably one of the most famous sculptures in the world and the iconic statue regularly attracts millions of visitors every year. Michelangelo created his famous Renaissance sculpture between 1501 and 1504. The completed work was originally exhibited prominently in the Palazzo della Signoria in the centre of Florence, but in 1873 it was moved to a new location at the Accademia Gallery, where it remains today.

There have been many concerns about the state of the statue in recent years. A scan taken in 2008 revealed a large number of hairline cracks in the marble. Experts believe that many cracks are as a result of Michelangelo having used poor quality marble, whereas others have been caused by large numbers of people walking past the statue on a daily basis. However, even though the statue is already in a poor state, experts are still worried that the planned tunnelling works being carried out so close to the statue’s home might have an adverse effect and make matters worse.

It has been suggested by some that construction of the Florence rail tunnel should be halted in order to protect one of Florence’s most famous pieces of art heritage.

Following a recent report on the benefits of building a third tunnel across the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, an unexpected rise in the overall costs of the planned project has been revealed. Previous reports had put the overall cost of the project at $3.7 billion, but the new study says the cost will now be around $5.3 billion, which is a fairly significant rise.

At the moment, the decision has yet to be taken on whether a bridge of tunnels are going to be the most appropriate and cost effective method of crossing the Waitemata Harbour. The original plan was for tunnels to be constructed beneath the harbour, but this time round experts have been looking into the viability of a bridge as well as tunnels. Interestingly, it has been revealed that a bridge is actually the cheaper option as not only would it cost less to construct, it would take less time to build and be cheaper to maintain in the long term.

But despite what would appear to be some very obvious benefits to building a bridge as opposed to tunnels, the transport minister has said that there will be a public consultation process before any final decision is made on the project.

The Mayor of Auckland believes that tunnelling is the better option as he thinks tunnels are future proof since tunnelling technology is improving all the time. He is in favour of a combined system of rail and road tunnels and he says that whatever system is chosen by the city, capacity for rail is a very important consideration. A cycle route and pedestrian crossing would also be included.

Back in 2008, a feasibility study looked at 159 different potential routes, but the final preferred option was for a tunnelling project involving four tunnels—two for roads and two for a railway line.

There has been a great deal of speculation since Rob Holden unexpectedly shocked the business community by announcing his resignation from the role of Chief Executive at Britain’s biggest rail infrastructure project, Crossrail. Several names have been put forward since then, but the latest one is Mark Bayley.

Mark Bayley is currently in the role of chief executive at London & Continental Railways, but many feel that he is a serious contender for the soon to be vacant role of chief executive at Crossrail. Should he take on the role of chief executive at Crossrail, he would be following a very similar path to Rob Holden, who also left LCR for his current role at Crossrail.

Industry experts feel that Mark Bayley would be a good choice for the Crossrail rail job as he has plenty of experience in the rail sector. He was finance director for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link between 2003 and 2009 and he is widely believed to have brought the CTRL back from the brink of disaster. He leaves his current role at LCR at the end of this month.

There are also several other potentially serious contenders for the chief executive role at Crossrail. A strong internal candidate is Andrew Mitchell. He has previously worked as program director at Thameslink and won a great deal of praise for his efforts during the recent multi million pound upgrade. Another internal candidate would be Ailie MacAdam who’s current role at Crossrail involves overseeing the central stations and tunnelling sectors.

External candidates who have been suggested as possible contenders for the role of chief executive at Crossrail include Tony Douglas, former boss of Heathrow and chief executive of Abu Dhabi Ports; Ian Galloway, director of CLM, Olympics delivery partner; and Howard Shipley, director of construction for the Olympic delivery authority.

A new tunnel through Mount Vadlaheidi is in the pipeline for Iceland and the company, responsible for the construction work was founded at the beginning of this month. The Icelandic Road Administration owns a 51% share of the new company, Vadlaheidagong, and the other 49% share is owned by Greid leid.

Work on the planned tunnel is expected to begin later on this year and a budget of 64 million Euros has been set for the project.

The Icelandic Road Administration has said that the tunnelling project will pay for itself over 25 years via the introduction of road tolls and if there is still an outstanding amount owing at the end of this period, further tolls will be payable for drivers passing through the tunnel.

However, the Icelandic Automobile Association are concerned that the cost estimates for the project are too conservative and they believe that the tunnelling project is likely to cost a lot more. They also feel that the planned road toll also needs to be higher in order to cover the costs of the tunnel more effectively.

An international preliminary selection for preferred contractors will be announced shortly and tenders for the tunnelling project will be requested within the next couple of months. Vadlaheidagong will evaluate all tender submissions shortly after the submittal process has ended and negotiation for the contracts will commence thereafter.

Construction work on the Vadlaheidi tunnel is expected to take between two and three and a half years to reach completion. The completed tunnel will be 7.4 kilometres long and 9.5 metres in diameter. If all goes well, the tunnel through Mount Vadlaheidi should be open to traffic by the end of 2014 and will enable drivers to avoid the dangerous Vikurskard Mountain Pass.

Using film set technology, a life sized model of a proposed Crossrail station platform has been revealed so that the general public can have a glimpse of exactly how a completed Crossrail below ground platform will look once the construction work on the various Crossrail stations has been completed.

Crossrail designers will be using the full size station mock up to help decide if any design modifications are necessary before the actual construction work begins later on this year. Building a full size model is very important, as it is the best way to see how well a station design translates into a real life experience.

Already at least one change has been made to the Crossrail station designs as a result of the full size mock up. In the original plans, signs giving passengers information for the next train due in at the station were located along the platform, but since the mock up was completed, Crossrail designers have decided to move the signs to an area above the platform edge doors so that they are easier to read.

In a statement, the chairman of Crossrail, Terry Morgan, said, The priority for Crossrail for the coming years will be the construction of the new stations and tunnels that will transform journeys across London and the south east from 2018 – but we also now need to give important consideration to the important final look and feel of stations. Making these decisions just before Crossrail opens in 2018 would be too late.

“Tens of millions of passengers will travel through the busiest Crossrail stations each year. The stations need to have surfaces that are able to cope with large numbers of passengers while also having an intuitive design and layout that is easy for people to navigate.”

Speaking at a recent event to raise awareness for the provision of more job opportunities for young people living in the London area, especially young offenders, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has called for more companies working in the construction industry, including Crossrail, to consider taking on young people.

Mayor Johnson was trying to draw attention to the plight of young offenders, many of whom struggle to find employment. Other important speakers at the event included the chairman of Crossrail, Terry Morgan, plus Dr Mary Harris from the National Grid Young Offender Programme, and the Deputy Mayor of Policing, Kit Malthouse.

With such a large number of major construction projects like Crossrail taking place in London at the moment, Mayor Johnson is trying to encourage more of the big construction companies involved in such construction projects to think about providing more employment opportunities that can help young people and young offenders turn their life around. Such schemes are a major factor in breaking the prison cycle, which in turn will save taxpayers in London millions.

The Olympic Delivery Authority’s pilot programme is one such example of a project whereby placements have been provided for up to 60 young offenders in order that they are able to find permanent employment opportunities in construction. Another example is the Get into Construction scheme, which provides essential skills training for young people and young offenders. This is being run by the Prince’s Trust in conjunction with the Mayor’s Office and has already helped many young people find employment on large construction projects such as Crossrail.

Boris Johnson is convinced that such projects are vital in helping to give young people a second chance so that they see construction can be a very attractive career choice for long-term gainful employment.