East London Line Research Articles

The Challenges and Opportunities for Mega-Infrastructure Projects and Archaeology

Jay Carver’s paper is very useful in summarising the process that Crossrail has followed and identifing the key factors in managing the risk, and maximising the benefits, associated with archaeology on major infrastructure projects.<br />MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) has been involved in many of London’s infrastructure projects, at the consultancy, planning, and mitigation stages. Over the past 30 years we have witnessed an evolution in the approach taken when dealing with the historic environment on major projects such as the Jubilee Line Extension, and the recent rail improvements to the East London Line and Thameslink.

East London line enabling works contracts

Construction of phase 1 of the new London Overground East London line was completed in 2010. Two enabling works contracts preceded the main contract for the construction of the railway. This paper gives the historical background of the old railway structures in east London that have been brought back into use for the new railway, and describes the many different forms of refurbishment or replacement that had to be undertaken to bring the old infrastructure up to modern standards.

Design and construction of stations on the East London line

This paper describes the design and construction of the two smaller ‘new-build' stations on the northern section of the new East London line recently constructed in central London. The stations were heavily influenced by the environment in which they were built and the structures they adjoined. Hoxton station was constructed under the existing nineteenth century masonry arches, which underwent significant analysis as part of the design, while at Haggerston, where they were assessed to be unsuitable, the new station was constructed under a new arch replacement structure.

Getting the East London line railway project, UK, into passenger service

The success of a large infrastructure project is primarily measured from the way it is brought into use. The Heathrow Terminal 5 construction was considered to be a very successful project in the way it was delivered; however, it is remembered unfortunately for the serious operational issues that occurred in the first few days of use by staff and passengers. The East London line railway project, UK was a £1 billion investment by Transport for London to add a fifth line to the already existing London Overground system that Transport for London created in 2007. This paper addresses how the TfL project team used system engineering principles drawn from international industry standards with the objective to plan, define, deliver, commission, assure and transfer into successful operations and maintenance. It concludes from the successful delivery of the resulting project that system engineering principles should be used throughout such a project to ensure there is proper control through the project life cycle and provide certainty of outcome.

A New Overground Line and the Sense of Place

AbstractRobert Harbison describes how the upgrading and extension of the old East London Line, which connects the city east and south, enables new explorations and insights. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Tricky truss: design and construction of bridge GE19, London

This paper describes the design and construction of bridge ‘GE 19’, an 84 m span steel Warren truss railway bridge recently constructed in central London on the East London line project. Its design was heavily influenced by the way it was to be launched over the busy East Anglia main line in the middle of a congested urban area, with limited room to deliver and assemble materials. This paper explains the development of the design concept and the influences of proposed construction methods. The chosen construction sequence and major temporary works are then described, and the resulting successes, failures and lessons learned are discussed.

3.4.4 Building a Systems Engineering Framework for London Overground using Experiences from the East London Line Project (ELLP)

AbstractLondon Overground is a passenger rail service under the responsibility of the Mayor of London, which is managed by Transport for London (TfL) and is operated by London Overground Rail Operations Limited (LOROL). London Overground forms part of the UK national rail network and Network Rail is the Infrastructure Manager (IM) as defined under the UK railways regulations except for a relatively short section of the East London Railway (ELR), for which Rail for London (RfL) is the IM. The current plan is for RfL to extend its IM duties to new routes such as the extensions of the ELR and to parts of the Crossrail route. The £1bn East London Line Project (ELLP) was responsible for the development of the ELR and the innovative Systems Engineering practices employed on that project have been reported in previous papers.This paper consolidates the experiences and knowledge from the ELLP into a number of ‘lessons learned’. It then proceeds to describe how the development of a framework of systems engineering practices for RfL's new IM role has benefited from the experiences on the ELLP.

Underneath the Arches in the East End: An Evaluation of the Planning and Design Policy Context of the East London Line Extension Project

Historically the development of principles and practice for integrated planning and urban design around suburban railway stations has not been a core component of British planning. However, over the past decade or so, in response to the growth of a consensus around the need to promote more sustainable transport behaviour, this situation has begun to change. This paper reviews the contemporary literature for integrated planning and design at and around stations and derives a set of analytical criteria which are used to evaluate the policy context for a new railway project in East London: the East London Line Extension. Conclusions are drawn as to whether the principles of good practice are being adhered to and the likelihood of the stations and their environs becoming exemplars of good practice for others to follow.

11.3.3 A Case for System Acceptance ‐ Progressive Assurance Practices on the East London Line Project

AbstractThe final product of the East London Line Project (ELLP), and hence the ‘ELL System’ to be accepted, is a fully operational railway comprising an infrastructure, rolling stock and operational resources and processes. The project has defined a structure for progressively decomposing the ELL System into ‘Levels’ as first the requirements and then products are developed and has also defined a comprehensive argument structure for collecting systems assurance evidence which builds up a robust ‘Technical Case’ as the project progresses through its engineering lifecycle towards final system acceptance. This paper describes some of the fundamental systems engineering concepts and principles, which provide an important structured framework for ‘Progressive Assurance’. To conclude the paper lessons learned to date are reported and recommendations for future application of the methodology are made.

The extension of London Underground's East London line

The East London line extension project is an imaginative scheme, which creates part of a potential orbital railway for London by using abandoned railway infrastructure by the construction of a short link to existing London Underground and Network Rail lines. The final railway will run from West Croydon, Crystal Palace and Clapham Junction to the south end of the existing East London line, where link bridges and new track will be constructed. The East London line will be linked at its north end by a viaduct and a bridge to the south end of the abandoned Kingsland viaduct, which is being refurbished. Finally the line will link to the Network Rail North London line and thence to Highbury and Islington station, an interchange station with the London Underground Victoria line. In phase I of the project, four new stations will be constructed. The service is to be operated by franchise operating over Network Rail tracks to New Cross Gate and London Underground tracks to Dalston Junction. This paper covers the scheme, the historical development of the lines, the condition of the existing infrastructure, and the project civil works.

“THE GREATEST WONDER OF THE WORLD”: BRUNEL'S TUNNEL AND THE MEANINGS OF UNDERGROUND LONDON

THE EAST END OF LONDONwas not a common destination for the upper- or middle-class sightseer in the early nineteenth century. The requisite steamer ride down the Thames from London Bridge for the excursion out of the city to Greenwich would show, along the way, in the words of one tourist, “The Custom House and the Tower, the only prominent objects rising out of the dreary range of shabbiness which stretches along close to the water's edge” (Hawthorne 232–33). There was one exception to the habit of overlooking the East End: a significant proportion of the twenty-four million persons who passed through the Thames Tunnel between Wapping and Rotherhithe from 1827 to 1865 had indeed made the eastward excursion expressly for that purpose. Essential viewing at the time but little studied since, the history of the Thames Tunnel indicates the stakes and the consequences of remapping the urban topography of London during the era when middle-class tourism was being invented. Comprised of two 1200-foot-long arched passageways joined by a wall of open arches in an overall brickworked space of 22 1/2 feet high by 38 feet wide (Bobrick 58), the Tunnel was unique among the obligatory sights of the city in that it was also a practical thoroughfare employed as such almost wholly by the working classes. It was open twenty-four hours a day, and, as one visitor noted, it offered the unusual experience of emerging “in the midst of one of the most unintelligible, forlorn, and forsaken districts of London or the world” (Catlin 2: 112–13; qtd. in Altick 373), the docklands and slums of the East End. Through a half-century as a symbolic hub of London life from the years of its design and excavation (1824–43) to its conversion to a railway tunnel on the East London Line in 1869, the Thames Tunnel mobilized the tensions in the modernizing city between technological progress and social repression into a dense network of underground myths.

THE STRENGTHENING OF BRUNEL'S THAMES TUNNEL.

Construction of Brunel's tunnel under the River Thames commenced in 1825, and was opened to the public in 1843. After several years in use as a pedestrian tunnel, it was converted for railway operation, reopening for rail traffic in 1869. The tunnel eventually became absorbed into the London Underground network, as part of the East London Line. Following a system-wide risk assessment of its subaqueous structures in the early 1990s, LUL concluded that the tunnel was in need of strengthening. A seven-month closure was proposed for the works to be carried out, starting on 25 March 1995. LUL's originally planned relining scheme required significant modification as a consequence of the late Grade II* listing of the tunnel on 24 March 1995. This paper summarizes the site investigation process and evolution of the relining scheme, together with the execution of the contract works, including tracklaying. Separate ground treatment works above the southern section of tunnel are also briefly described. (A)