CrossRail Isn’t All New
You’d expect that a modern project like CrossRail would be all new tunnels.
But it’s not!
An article in Modern Railways describes how the old Connaught Tunnel from the long-abandoned North Woolwich to Palace Gates line is being opened up to take the new railway. There is an article on the tunnels and some pictures here of the tunnel. You’ll have to page down a bit.
I like this from the introduction to the MR article.
On paper, reusing this existing link, which runs beneath the intersection of the Royal Victoria and Albert Docks, is cheaper and less disruptive than boring a new tunnel. In practice, the work required to bring the route up to scratch is anything but simple which, from an engineering point of view at least, means there’s a lot of fun to be had.
A lot is not good clean fun too, as they will probably have to lay a 1,000 cubic metre concrete slab under water.
Don’t ever say engineering is boring! Even where tunnels are involved.
The Anonymous Widower 
[…] mentioned that the old Connaught Tunnel in London’s Docklands is going to be reused as part of […]
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