An Alternative London End To HS2
This plan called Euston Cross, was first aired in the railway press and is a serious alternative to what is currently proposed. it’s described detail in this post in a blog.
I think it should be taken seriously, as it would appear to have a few cost advantages and it would require less demolition at Euston.
As an engineer, who helped to develop the methods and software to build large projects, I believe that we can’t ignore the lessons of the biggest and most intelligent beast in the jungle; Crossrail.
Crossrail is setting new records for tunnelling proficiency, depth under London and project management. But as we experienced in the North Sea Oil industry in the 1970s, today’s big machines are dwarves compared to what will be available in a few years.
So the idea of linking HS2 to HS1 by means of tunnels and an underground station might be easier, than anybody would dare think using today’s technology. It could also go a lot deeper and just as Crossrail is diving under the Underground, it could probably dive deeper still.
Canary Wharf CrossRail Station
Coming home, I stopped off at West India Quay DLR station and took these pictures of the new CrossRail station at Canary Wharf.
Note Billingsgate Fish Market in the background. That was the setting for this BBC news item about a seal, who lives by the fish market.
If You Want Good Publicity, Black Death Is A Surprisingly Good Idea
I have a Google News alert for Crossrail and today, it flagged up nine stories on the web.
Eight of these were about the story I reported on yesterday, about the finding of a cemetery for plague victims.
Usually, companies try to disassociate themselves from death and other dark stories.
If you’re wondering the other story, was about Crossrail driving up residential property prices. But then rising property prices are a good news story in many peoples’ minds.
Tunnelling Through Black Death
Crossrail has come across some unusual going on its tunnelling throuygh London. According to this article, they have hit a Black Death burial pit. Here’s a couple of paragraphs.
A burial ground was known to be in an area outside the City of London, but its exact location remained a mystery.
Thirteen bodies have been found so far in the 5.5m-wide shaft at the edge of Charterhouse Square, alongside pottery dated to the mid-14th Century.
Analysis will shed light on the plague and the Londoners of the day.
You have to admire the way that Europe’s biggest project is handling the archaeology.
Strangely, I can’t remember any of the excavations finding any unexploded ordnance from the Second World War.
The Grandmother Of All Overspends
it is being reported that the overspend on the Sochi Winter Olympics is approaching £335 million in several places. Read about it here in the Bangkok Post.
The Times is also reporting that they’ve got serious floods in Sochi.
It’s good that we had the Olympics last year, so now weather and cost overruns can’t effect them.
Crossrail Launch An Arts Programme
Crossrail do seem a bit different to your average company, with some of the things they do, like their excellent archaeological program, which resulted in last year’s exhibition called Bison to Bedlam.
Now they have launched an arts programme, as they report here. I’m glad to see too, that they have spelt programme correctly.
Loading Crossrail Spoil At Limmo
I have been trying to get a picture of this for some time and finally did this morning from the Emirates Air-Line cable-car..
Loading Crossrail Spoil At Limmo
You could actually see the spoil pouring off the white conveyor into the ship. It’s obviously an easier way to get rid of all the spoil, than using an armada of trucks.
Crossrail Looks To Yorkshire
Crossrail has made an appeal for firms in Yorkshire and Humberside to become suppliers to Europe’s biggest construction project. It’s all reported here in the Yorkshire Post.
I did write a post about Custom House station, which is being built in Sheffield and transported to London and installed on site. That sounds like a clever and affordable way to create stations.
Understatement From Network Rail
One of my least favourite station is Manchester Victoria, which looks like it was last deep refurbished and cleaned, when its namesake was on the throne. On the Network Rail page about their plans for the station is this classic phrase.
As anyone who has been to Manchester Victoria on a rainy day can tell you, there is a problem with the roof.
But at least something is being done. They state this about the new roof.
The £16m new roof is likely to be made of ETFE (Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) – the material used at Manchester Piccadilly station, the Eden Project in Cornwall and the swimming pool built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, known as the Water Cube. ETFE is lighter, cheaper and lets in more light than glass. It’s also self cleaning, making it an ideal material for roofs.
You do wonder if this material could be used in other places to improve buildings at a more affordable cost than traditional methods.
I’ll look forward to using the new Manchester Victoria station in a few years time.
Demolition At London Bridge Station
Work has properly started on the new London Bridge station, as the pictures show.
The bus station is still closed, but according to a guy in the buses information booth, it might be open next Monday. I think he did mean the 11th and he blamed the weight of the Shard for the damage to the sewer that caused the need for closure. He didn’t like the building either, as I don’t!
For more details on the rebuilding of the station, look here on the Network Rail web site.
The Anonymous Widower 