Crossrail - London's new Metro: Crossrail, the new Metro in London running 125 klms., or 78 miles from Canary Wharf in the East to Heathrow Airport in the West, is at present, the...

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

Crossrail, the new Metro in London running 125 klms., or 78 miles from Canary Wharf in the East to Heathrow Airport in the West, is at present, the largest construction site in Europe and is due to open in 2018. The sheer technical difficulties that have had to be overcome is testament to mans ingenuity, from taking care not to damage buildings on the surface, constructing ten new stationas to tunneling under the Thames and all of this trying not to disrupt the normal flow of traffic. Ten thousand people are being employed on its consruction and the cost is in the region of £15,000,000,000 or 25,233,000,000 dollars.

Two tunnel boring machine are employed, each 147 metres long and weighing 1,000 tons.

One of the remarkable things was that the engineers had to demolish a 100 years old brick and Portland cement Victorian tunnel that turned out to be a task and a haf since it was so well constructed and over the years it had settled and become stronger and stronger.

Archeological discoveries have been made along the way of course, including what archaeologists believe are "plague pits" where those who died during the Black Death were interred in the 14th century.

There has been a series of three one hour programmes on the BBC about this, all equally fascinating from a technical point of view but what will be most visible to the public will be the new station at Canary Wharf, the second financial district after the first, the square mile simply known as The City.

The station will be on several levels; the platform level, the booking hall level and then on top, an extraordinary structure that will be in effect, a giant greenhouse.

The structure is made of wooden beans that are actually planks glued together that will be stronger than steel. Each beam is fixed in place by a steel "joint" that, as you will see in the photos, are very complex castings. The whole thing was pre-fabricated and assembled on site like a giant Meccano. Each piece had to be precision made so that it could be fitted together without problem. Once the beams were all in place then each triangular section, more than 700, was fitted with an inflatable "cushion". Specialist workmen with heads for heights were employed for the fitting.

The following photos were not taken by me, obviously I had no access to the site, but they are screengrabs from the programme so they do not belong in the Photo Gallery.

Hope you enjoy.

One of the steel joints

(Download)

Pre-fabricated joints have to fit perfectly

(Download)

More of the steel joints

(Download)

Slightly more complicated than Meccano

(Download)

Beams fitted

(Download)

Showing the complex structure

(Download)

Nearly meeting in the middle

(Download)

Meeting point

(Download)

Specialist workers fitting the windows

(Download)

Two fitted, a lot more to go

(Download)

Fitting the inflatable windows

(Download)

Halfway house

(Download)

Artists impression of the finished station

(Download)

Artist's impression of the finished station

(Download)

Artist's impression of the finished station. The three rectangular pieces below are the outlets for the air conditioning

(Download)

Artist's impression of the finished station

(Download)

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

This was a fantastic series and a must watch for anyone with an interest in just what can be done, albeit at a cost. The part that really caught my attention was when one of the Tunnel Borers was guided through a gap between an existing Tube Tunnel and an access escalator without a single tile being disturbed whilst the people on the escalator and the Tube station had no idea what was going on between them.

Get it on I-Player quick, it's only up for another few days (but I'm sure it'll be repeated here).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04b7cbj/the-fifteen-billion-pound-railway-1-urban-heart-surgery

Shakey Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.

Fascinating. Thanks for posting, Gargleblaster. I'll read up on that extraordinary construction.

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

John N wrote:

Get it on I-Player quick, it's only up for another few days (but I'm sure it'll be repeated here).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04b7cbj/the-fifteen-billion-pound-railway-1-urban-heart-surgery

iPlayer is not available to anyone outside the UK so I hope my short account will have been interesting.

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

John N wrote:

This was a fantastic series and a must watch for anyone with an interest in just what can be done, albeit at a cost. The part that really caught my attention was when one of the Tunnel Borers was guided through a gap between an existing Tube Tunnel and an access escalator without a single tile being disturbed whilst the people on the escalator and the Tube station had no idea what was going on between them.

What is also extraordinary is the fact that a 1,000 ton machine can bore a tunnel with such accuracy (guided by lasers) that it can break through to an existing tunnel exactly at the right place. Had to laugh when it bored though that last concrete wall that it got so hot that they had to resort to pouring buckets of water over the cutters!

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

Perhaps more extraordinary is not the guiding of the borers as we've become used to computer controlled machinery and GPS fixings etc., but the surveying of the existing infrastructure, a fact little touched upon.

What I've not figured out is why the didn't go deeper and straighter, clearing all of the existing infrastructure rather than having to weave in and out of it.

I didn't know I-Player was not available outside of the U.K.

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

John N wrote:

What I've not figured out is why the didn't go deeper and straighter, clearing all of the existing infrastructure rather than having to weave in and out of it.

There presumably was a reason. To have gone deeper would have cost much more I believe and £15 billions was more than enough to spend without adding to the bill. Also bear in mind that they had to link up to some existing stations.

The programmes were so interesting that I hope there will be a follow up. I'm sure they would have ample material.

Trondi

Fantastic project and film!

thanks for posting!

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

Having mentioned the boring machines I thought that possibly, some might be interested in seeing them so, here's a small selction for the technically minded.

If there's anything else that someone wants to see, if it's on the DVD, I'll do my best to oblige. Just ask.

The cutting edge

(Download)

Being lowered to start work

(Download)

Almost there

(Download)

One of the two boring machines

(Download)

The cutting edge

(Download)

Breaking through

(Download)

Canonuser Loc: UK and South Africa

GARGLEBLASTER wrote:

iPlayer is not available to anyone outside the UK so I hope my short account will have been interesting.

Try using a proxy se3rver and you'll be able to get it that way

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

Canonuser wrote:

Try using a proxy se3rver and you'll be able to get it that way

Personally I don't need it since I received all the British TV channels and more, legally via the Internet. This is how I managed to record these programmes.

lateron Loc: Yorkshire, England

GARGLEBLASTER wrote:

Crossrail, the new Metro in London running 125 klms., or 78 miles from Canary Wharf in the East to Heathrow Airport in the West, is at present, the largest construction site in Europe and is due to open in 2018. The sheer technical difficulties that have had to be overcome is testament to mans ingenuity, from taking care not to damage buildings on the surface, constructing ten new stationas to tunneling under the Thames and all of this trying not to disrupt the normal flow of traffic. Ten thousand people are being employed on its consruction and the cost is in the region of £15,000,000,000 or 25,233,000,000 dollars.

Two tunnel boring machine are employed, each 147 metres long and weighing 1,000 tons.

One of the remarkable things was that the engineers had to demolish a 100 years old brick and Portland cement Victorian tunnel that turned out to be a task and a haf since it was so well constructed and over the years it had settled and become stronger and stronger.

Archeological discoveries have been made along the way of course, including what archaeologists believe are "plague pits" where those who died during the Black Death were interred in the 14th century.

There has been a series of three one hour programmes on the BBC about this, all equally fascinating from a technical point of view but what will be most visible to the public will be the new station at Canary Wharf, the second financial district after the first, the square mile simply known as The City.

The station will be on several levels; the platform level, the booking hall level and then on top, an extraordinary structure that will be in effect, a giant greenhouse.

The structure is made of wooden beans that are actually planks glued together that will be stronger than steel. Each beam is fixed in place by a steel "joint" that, as you will see in the photos, are very complex castings. The whole thing was pre-fabricated and assembled on site like a giant Meccano. Each piece had to be precision made so that it could be fitted together without problem. Once the beams were all in place then each triangular section, more than 700, was fitted with an inflatable "cushion". Specialist workmen with heads for heights were employed for the fitting.

The following photos were not taken by me, obviously I had no access to the site, but they are screengrabs from the programme so they do not belong in the Photo Gallery.

Hope you enjoy.

Crossrail, the new Metro in London running 125 klm... (show quote)

I watched this programme - fascinating, and well worth the time, (and not a single mention of "northern/Southern Divide. Incicently. I used to pass through Stokenchurch, (on the M4 on the way to my job at Peugeot(UK).

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

Thanks for looking. This thread hasn't attracted much attention. Maybe I used the wrong title and should have stuck to the original: The 15 million pound railway.

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

GARGLEBLASTER wrote:

Crossrail, the new Metro in London running 125 klms., or 78 miles from Canary Wharf in the East to Heathrow Airport in the West, is at present, the largest construction site in Europe and is due to open in 2018. The sheer technical difficulties that have had to be overcome is testament to mans ingenuity, from taking care not to damage buildings on the surface, constructing ten new stationas to tunneling under the Thames and all of this trying not to disrupt the normal flow of traffic. Ten thousand people are being employed on its consruction and the cost is in the region of £15,000,000,000 or 25,233,000,000 dollars.

Two tunnel boring machine are employed, each 147 metres long and weighing 1,000 tons.

One of the remarkable things was that the engineers had to demolish a 100 years old brick and Portland cement Victorian tunnel that turned out to be a task and a haf since it was so well constructed and over the years it had settled and become stronger and stronger.

Archeological discoveries have been made along the way of course, including what archaeologists believe are "plague pits" where those who died during the Black Death were interred in the 14th century.

There has been a series of three one hour programmes on the BBC about this, all equally fascinating from a technical point of view but what will be most visible to the public will be the new station at Canary Wharf, the second financial district after the first, the square mile simply known as The City.

The station will be on several levels; the platform level, the booking hall level and then on top, an extraordinary structure that will be in effect, a giant greenhouse.

The structure is made of wooden beans that are actually planks glued together that will be stronger than steel. Each beam is fixed in place by a steel "joint" that, as you will see in the photos, are very complex castings. The whole thing was pre-fabricated and assembled on site like a giant Meccano. Each piece had to be precision made so that it could be fitted together without problem. Once the beams were all in place then each triangular section, more than 700, was fitted with an inflatable "cushion". Specialist workmen with heads for heights were employed for the fitting.

The following photos were not taken by me, obviously I had no access to the site, but they are screengrabs from the programme so they do not belong in the Photo Gallery.

Hope you enjoy.

Crossrail, the new Metro in London running 125 klm... (show quote)

Great looking job. But I wonder why they used wood beams?

GARGLEBLASTER Loc: Spain

Hal81 wrote:

Great looking job. But I wonder why they used wood beams?

Maybe for aesthetic reasons and as I also explained, they are stronger thah steel.