London Bridge Quarter public realm redevelopment hits new milestone

Copyright of Sellar Property

Many of London Bridge Station’s 350,000 daily passengers are now enjoying dramatically improved concourse facilities as a major milestone was reached last weekend in London Bridge Quarter’s creation of a 21st century public realm around one of the capital’s key transport hubs.

Copyright of Sellar Property

Congestion for departing and arriving passengers has now been eased with the completion of 42 new ticket barriers by Cubic Transportation Systems, the transportation segment of Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB). The new ticket barriers represent a 40 per cent improvement on the old structure. In addition, the concourse’s new glass roof, which links to the Shard, has been installed and much of the old station roof has been removed giving passengers a feel for what the new terminus will feel like and the additional light it will attract. At the same time the new stone flooring continues to be installed for completion in May 2012.

The environment under the Shard’s glass ceiling will mean that the gateline is visually minimised, but to ensure that customers continue to flow through the station, overhead directional displays will be added later in the year to maintain the flow between trains and the underground system.

The gateline supports both magnetic and Oyster ticket checking capability. Although Cubic has been involved with the London Bridge (Shard) redevelopment project since September 2008, its critical tasks of removing the old and implementing the new ramp-less gateline were completed overnight on July 31, 2011 for a seamless transition for customers.

These improvements are part of LBQ’s £50 million transformation of the station concourse and bus station, and creation of a new public piazza that links The Place, a 430,000 square foot headquarters office building currently under construction, to the iconic mixed-use Shard tower.

In addition, the Shard will deliver much-needed modern retail facilities at its base facing out onto the station concourse, and new escalators from the public piazza will link to a new underground retail mall. A total of about 12,000 square feet of new retail space is being created.

The project team led by Sellar Property, LBQ’s developer, is using innovative thinking to complete the station concourse transformation while minimising passengers’ disruption and inconvenience. This includes constructing a new station roof above the old roof, which is being used as a working platform, thereby significantly reducing both impact on passengers and building time.

The station concourse and a majority of the public realm works will be completed in time for next year’s Olympics. Practical completion of the Shard will be the end of May 2012, while The Place will be completed in April 2013.