Liverpool Street Crossrail Station is making good progress

The construction of the new Liverpool Street Crossrail station is making good progress with key works completed and the project moving into an important stage of delivery.

The new Crossrail station will be located between the existing Liverpool Street and Moorgate stations. Crossrail will build two new entrances and ticket halls, creating new interchanges with the Northern, Central, Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines, as well as connections to Stansted airport and National Rail services.

The construction of the new Liverpool Street Crossrail Station is divided up into 4 main sites with good progress being made on each:

Moorgate site – new western ticket hall construction well underway

• The western ticket hall for the new Crossrail station is being constructed in Moorgate and will involve enlarging the existing Moorgate Underground Station
• A 55 metre deep shaft is being excavated next to the existing station with reinforced concrete panels installed 60 metres below the surface to form a box below ground
• Work is well underway on installing the concrete diaphragm wall panels and is due for completion later this summer
• The construction of the Moorgate shaft is taking place in one of Crossrail’s most constrained sites with the Hammersmith & City Line to the north, the Northern Line to the east and the existing Moorgate station ticket hall nearby.

Liverpool Street site – new eastern ticket hall construction to begin in early 2014

• At the eastern end of the Crossrail station, a new ticket hall will be constructed beneath Liverpool Street close to the Broadgate development. The new ticket hall will provide step-free access from street level to the new Crossrail platforms
• A subsurface ticket hall will be constructed to link into the existing London Underground ticket hall at Liverpool Street
• Work is also underway to create a utilities corridor beneath Liverpool Street to allow all existing utilities to be diverted away from the future Broadgate Ticket Hall
• Construction of the eastern ticket hall will begin in early 2014

Finsbury Circus shaft – more than 600 metres of tunnels built so far

• A temporary 42 metre deep shaft has been built beneath Finsbury Circus park to act as the ‘nerve-centre’ for the construction of Crossrail platform tunnels, concourse and passages to link the new eastern and western ticket halls at Moorgate and Liverpool St
• The shaft provides underground access for the construction of more than 1.5km of tunnels and cross passages using Sprayed Concrete Lining techniques
• From the bottom of the shaft, tunnels branching off in 4 directions are now being constructed to form the central passageways and cross passages at platform level
• Branching off from the ends of the cross passages, the two 250m long Platform Tunnels will then be built – work has now started on the first platform tunnel which will become the eastbound platform tunnel for the new Crossrail services
• The platform tunnels are initially formed as 6 metre pilot tunnels which are then enlarged to the final diameter of 9.5 metres
• More than 600 metres of temporary and full size tunnels have been built so far – the station tunnels will be completed in 2015
• The tunnel boring machines creating the central tunnelled section of the Crossrail route will come through Liverpool Street site and are scheduled to arrive in late 2014
• Once work is completed the Finsbury Circus park area will be restored

Blomfield Street shaft – foundations completed on box structure for ventilation, electrical and mechanical equipment

• A 40m-deep box structure is being constructed on Blomfield Street to accommodate ventilation, electrical, mechanical and systems equipment for the new Crossrail station
• So far over 250 piles have been completed including all high-level foundation works and two thirds of the main shaft piles installed up to 50 metres deep, making the box Crossrail’s deepest piled shaft. The main shaft piling is due for a summer completion
• Adjacent to the box, a new Communications Equipment Room (CER), power substation and switch rooms for the Liverpool Street London Underground station are being constructed. This will allow the demolition of the existing substation to create space for the Broadgate ticket hall on Liverpool Street.
• The power substation and switchrooms are due to be completed later this year

Other works – new 53 metre long cable tunnel completed

• 5 metres below the ground a new 53 metre long cable tunnel to connect the new substation has now been completed – the first permanent sprayed concrete lining tunnel to be finished on the Crossrail projectThe three main contractors on the Liverpool Street project (C501 BAM Nuttall Kier (BNK) Joint Venture, C502 Laing O’Rourke, and C503 Vinci Construction) have each been awarded Crossrail’s Green Line Scheme award – a project-wide initiative to drive and reward environmental performance throughout Crossrail sites.

Bill Tucker, Crossrail Area Director Central said: “Liverpool Street is one of Crossrail’s most challenging station projects with several construction sites located in a tightly constrained area but work is making good progress. The complexity of this project is matched only by the huge improvements it will deliver, with the new station set to create extra capacity, improved connections and new transport links to the City of London. With the continued support of the City of London and London Underground we are working hard to minimise disruption so we would like to thank local businesses for their patience while we carry out these essential works.”

When Crossrail opens in 2018, up to 24 Crossrail trains per hour will operate in each direction between Paddington and Liverpool Street during peak times, in addition to existing London Underground and National Rail services. The new Crossrail services will help ease overcrowding and will support economic growth in the surrounding area, as Liverpool Street becomes an important interchange on the Crossrail route. Journey times from Liverpool Street to Heathrow Airport will be only 33 minutes, whilst Liverpool Street to Canary Wharf will be reduced to just 7 minutes.