Shoreditch High Street station box going up

As previously reported here, the East London Line extension's Shoreditch High Street station is to be enclosed on all sides by a massive windowless concrete box (i.e. walls and a roof). The primary aim of this is to protect the line so that it can stay open during the construction of skyscrapers alongside it.

Until now there was no sign of it, but this week they started erecting posts to support the structure:
It really is that big compared to the poxy humans.

Thanks to Antonio for the photo. Here's a panorama of the whole of Bishopsgate Goods Yard, using pictures taken by him today from the Tea Building on the north side of the site (click to enlarge):

The box will stretch at full height for the length of the platforms (which corresponds to the finished section of viaduct), and at a lower height all the way to Brick Lane on the left and Shoreditch High Street on the right (a map of Shoreditch, if you're lost).

East London Line progress photos: July 2008

Construction of the East London Line extension continues apace. Since I haven't checked in on progress since May, so it's time for another look at how they're getting on.

At Dalston Junction, the station is going to be in the basement of a massive development, and they've now put in the floor above the station. Trains arriving from Highbury & Islington will go through the hole on the right:

Via the magic of the telephoto lens, here's a glimpse of Haggerston station from Richmond Road. The white vertical line is the Regent's Canal bridge even further in the distance:

And here's Haggerston station from ground level:

At Hoxton station they've been digging out the viaduct arches and laying a concrete slab, and in the foreground are the fundations for the stairs and/or lifts alongside the viaduct:

That mysterious building alongside the site is huge, and could possibly be a ticket office. It has a large opening in the side roughly at viaduct level:

Here are a couple of glimpses of the top of the viaduct from a nearby tower block. It looks like they're starting to prepare the ground for tracklaying:


The viaduct ends in Shoreditch, and it looks like they're deliberately not connecting it up so they can keep this access ramp. Note the massive concrete support column where the viaduct will eventually be:

Turning the camera slightly to the right, they've finished this section of the viaduct and are working on the next section that connects it to the Shoreditch High Street bridge:

On the other side of Shoreditch High Street the viaduct linking the bridge to the already-finished Shoreditch High Street station viaduct is also taking shape:

They're also working on the viaduct between the station and Brick Lane, but it's very hard to see or photograph.

At Brick Lane they've put in this little walkway so they can build the viaduct across the top, although there's no sign yet of them doing so yet:


Just to the left is the notorious GE19 bridge. Reader Steven Gee sends in this picture of the missing slab:
Going by the known measurements of the bridge, I estimate the weight of the slab that fell on the bridge at around half a ton.

This is the ramp down from the bridge. It looked pretty much like this at the time the bridge collapsed, so I'm not certain they've been able to work on it:

Conversely, here's the nearby ramp down into the East London Line cutting:

Just west of Valance Road there was a brick arched bridge, which has been demolished and replaced:
This is to provide clearance so that trains coming up the ramp from the cutting can get under it.

Just north of Whitechapel there's not a lot happening:


At the north end of the East London Line platforms at Whitechapel they've been busy digging out Crossrail interchange subways:

Just south of Whitechapel they've busy laying new track:

And south of the river, they've completed replacing the track on the New Cross branch, though they seem to have forgotten the conductor rail:
There's no sign of any connection to the main line here for works trains to get in, which was once rumoured.

As always, it's just about impossible to get a decent photo of anything at the New Cross Gate depot site, but they appear to have finished the concrete shell of the control centre buildings; finished the ramps up to the flyover; put in the second, smaller span of the flyover; and are in the very early stages of laying track.

East London Line progress photos: May 2008

Time for a look at bits of East London Line construction that don't involve moving bridges. Last month's is here.

A high rise development will be built above Dalston Junction, and the track layout for the station in the basement is now clearly visible:
This photo's taken from the north end, so the two gaps are for the curve around towards Highbury and Islington, with the terminus platforms behind the wall in the middle.

I still haven't been to get hold of detailed plans for the next two stations, but at Haggerston the concrete for the platforms is visible on the new section of viaduct:
The bridge over Lee Street (on the left) is only wide enough for the track, while the bridge over Arbutus Street (on the right) is clearly designed to carry platforms, so we can conclude pretty definitely that the platforms will start on the north side of Lee Street with the entrance likely to be between there and Arbutus Street.

At Hoxton they're building something on a corner of the station construction site, but I'm increasingly thinking it isn't railway related:
The wall on the right is the viaduct.

Continuing south to the Holywell Lane viaduct (Shoreditch map yadda yadda) they've built this nice chunky support column:

Speaking of chunky concrete, they've started taking down the scaffolding from Shoreditch High Street station:
Just wait for the walls to go up.

Remember that big extension on the front of the GE19 bridge? It's been taken off and dismantled:
(reduced to shoving my camera through a gap in the fence this time)

Last month there was a disused bridge over the line just west of Valance Road. Not any more:This will be the ramp up to the GE19 bridge.

Slightly further towards Whitechapel, there was some temporary track. Again, gone, replaced with a new concrete trackbed:

Jumping a long way south to the missing bridge over Surrey Canal Road. Last week I said it still needed to be replaced. They're way ahead of me:
Way off in the distance above the van is the light blue footbridge that marks the future site of Surrey Canal Road station on the ELL phase 2 route.

At the New Cross Gate flyover, the north ramp looks fairly complete:

While the south one doesn't:

Of course there's a bridge between them now.

Finally, reader Dave has emailed in to say new points have just been put in south of New Cross Gate station ready for through trains. I've also seen new track ready to go in at New Cross (which is where I've heard engineering trains will come in). With the replacement of the Surrey Canal Road bridge complete, it looks like main line trains should be able to reach the central part of the line pretty soon.

GE19 bridge push: Day 2

After getting the GE19 bridge most of the way across yesterday, it was moved into its final position overnight. Here are some photos of it in its final position:

The extension on the front has ended up completely across Brick Lane:
It's not obvious in this picture, but the front extension curves upwards significantly. This meant as the bridge was pushed the front was lifted up, raising the bridge from the horizontal (how it was built) to a 1 in 30 gradient (needed to get the line over Brick Lane).

The area where the bridge was assembled:
If you look immediately underneath you can see the bracket where the strand jack was attached, and a corresponding hole in the framework on the ground that the cable was anchored to.

Inside the Bishopsgate Goods Yard compound:
The wall in the distance is obviously where the site borders Brick Lane. There's a fair gap between the under construction viaduct and the bridge, though the viaduct posts have been ready for a while. As far as I'm aware, the bridge over Brick Lane will simply be a concrete viaduct span rather than anything special.

Finally, a slightly wonky Autostitched panorama of the whole site:
From left to right: Bushes atop the Braithwaite Viaduct, Shoreditch High Street bridge (very small), Shoreditch High Street station, the extension, Brick Lane, the bridge, the bridge construction site, and just out of shot, Shoreditch tube station.

The GE19 bridge push: Day 1

I was invited by TfL to use the official viewing galleries set up for this event, so I've had a very good view of the action.

I'll start with an overview of the site, taken from the east end:
This was taken around lunchtime after the bridge had been moved a fair distance, with the front dangling over the railway line.

While the wheels at the back are powered, the majority of the force comes from a pair of strand jacks:
These are basically just hydraulic rams that can pull themselves along cables. The two sets of cables are strung along underneath the bridge and anchored to the eastern abutment (ie they don't cross the railway line). The jacks should therefore roughly reach the end of the cable when the bridge is in its final position.

So that's the theory. Here's how it looked when I got there first thing:

The bridge had already been moved a significant distance, with the west end of the bridge proper (the brown bit) resting on the eastern abutment. The grey bit is a temporary extension and will be cut off and scrapped.

During the morning they moved it much further:

They then took a break to add a whole load of counterweights (kentledge) to the back. It started moving again:

With the tip of the bridge looming very close they started lubricated the western abutment:
The bridge is sliding on flat pads, with no bearings, though the pads are free to pivot front to back.

A short while later, the tip of the extension was hovering right over the pads:

This next bit surprised me. They were able to jack up the back of the bridge, tilting the opposite end down onto the pads:
Note that the left side touched down before the right. This caused a view anguished faces in the viewing gallery. It doesn't seem to have been a real problem, though they were briefly seen holding an ordinary builder's spirit level up against it.

They moved it a couple of feet further packing up:

I think they're now repositioning the counterweights. At time of writing it hasn't moved again, though you can watch the live webcam and be the first to know.

Thanks again to TfL for the invite.

East London Line progress photos: April 2008

It's as good as April, so time for another set of pictures of East London Line extension progress. Last month's are here.

A bit more steel work has gone in at Dalston Junction. This is looking south and the gap for the safeguarded east curve (towards Stratford) is clearly visible:


No visible changes at Hoxton or Haggerston, so I'll skip those.

Last month I speculated they were about to start on the deck of the viaduct where the line comes off the Broad Street viaduct (route map through Shoreditch). Look like I was right:

At Shoreditch High Street station, the concrete deck is complete, albeit with mountings for the station walls sticking out:

The gate on Brick Lane was wide open, so here's a shot of the GE19 bridge (and its temporary extension) and the abutment it needs to be moved onto. Between them is the Great Eastern Main Line, though only the beams holding up its overhead wires are visible:

This is from Valance Road looking west towards where Shoreditch station was. This is where the ramp to get the line out of the old ELL cutting begins. The GE19 bridge is visible above it:

A bit further towards Whitechapel there's track down, though it looks only temporary:
TRIVIA ALERT: The wide bit on the left is the old entrance to a goods depot, and later was where they started digging a tunnel to Cambridge Heath station in a previous failed extension scheme.

The north end of Whitechapel station:

Jumping south of the river, a bridge that used to carry the ELL over Surrey Canal Road and into what will be the new depot has been demolished:
Don't know why.

Turning the camera to the right, the shed at the new New Cross Gate depot:


I said last month that the depot site can't be photographed because it's spread over a long area and only visible from a moving train. So let's try video:

The shed pops into view at 0:11, and you see the ramp down from the flyover around 0:24.
(sorry about the poor quality - leave a comment if you found it useful anyway)

The bridge structure for the flyover, which will carry northbound trains over the main line and onto the ELL north of New Cross Gate:
Looks wide enough for two tracks, but only needs to carry one.

Meanwhile, the New Cross branch has new track:
The tracks in the foreground are part of the old ELL depot, which is apparently being left to rot.

But god knows what's going on with the track at New Cross station:


Oh yeah, bridge.


They started early and I got there late, so you'll have to go elsewhere for pictures of it properly airborne.

Here it is when I got there at 8.30am:

The east end touched down only a few minutes later:

At 9am, with only an inch to go on west side, the show was nearly over:

By 10:30am it was in its final position and the crane had been unhooked: