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).

GE19 bridge move this weekend

The second of the three major bridges for the East London Line extension is being moved into place this Sunday and Monday. It's the GE19 bridge that crosses the Great Eastern Main Line (the line out of Liverpool Street), right next to where Shoreditch tube station was. See my map of the whole area.

This photo was sent to me by TfL's actually-being-helpful press office, which shows just about everything, taken from above Brick Lane looking east:
The building on the right is Shoreditch station, and the bridge is sitting where the platform cutting used to be.

The accompanying info says the best place to view the move is Allen Gardens (a short walk from Whitechapel station). Regarding when to go:

The best times to see the bridge actually moving are expected to be Sunday 04:00 to 07:00, 09:00 to 12:00 and 17:00 to 22:00 or Monday 04:00 to 08:00, but are of course subject to progress on site and weather.

The bridge will be moved using "strand jacking", which is where a hydrualic ram is used to pull on a steel cable. Once the ram is fully extended, it's disconnected from the cable, retracted, and reattached further down the cable, so the process can begin again.

They say the structure to be moved weighs 1800 tonnes including "kentledge", which is your new word for the day.

Update: The east end is on wheels!

This must be the self-propelled vehicle mentioned here. The strand-jacking is how the front will be winched across.

Don't worry folks, they fit

Shoreditch High Street station

Not much has been said about the design of the new Shoreditch High Street station, least of all on this blog, so let's correct that.

Renderings like this have appeared on hoardings and in some promotional materials:

At first I thought this was just a conceptual picture of the line flying over Shoreditch, but no, they are actually building a five storey tall, quarter mile long windowless concrete box through the middle of the Bishopsgate Goods Yard site.

Here it is to scale with the enormous new Shoreditch High Street bridge (which you can fit a double decker bus under) and the even more enormous GE19 bridge:

The structure will have solid concrete walls and a concrete roof, making it feel like an underground station inside, despite the platforms being 9 metres above ground level. The brown bits aren't windows, they're "horizontal recesses that create a dynamic articulation in the façade when viewed as a whole", and will be filled with reflective material.

This letter explains why:

The enclosure will facilitate the redevelopment of the former Bishopsgate Goods Yard site by protecting the railway and station from future construction work. Unless the viaduct is enclosed, the future development of Bishopsgate Goods Yard would be severely constrained, or would require line possessions resulting in major disruption to ELL services. Construction of an enclosure to the viaduct is therefore essential if regeneration objectives of the boroughs of Hackney and Tower Hamlets and the London Plan are to be realised.

It's expected the whole thing will be "virtually totally enclosed" with buildings in the "medium to long term". There's already a planning application in for the southwest corner of the site.

So yes, big concrete wall coming soon. The station planning application is here or you can skip ahead to this set of renderings and drawings.

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:

Shoreditch High Street bridge move: 8-10am tomorrow

TfL have put out a press release with everything you could possibly want to know about the bridge over Shoreditch High Street going up tomorrow, and the crane that's doing it.

The crane is hooked up and ready to go, the road closure starts at 4am tomorrow and the actual move will happen between 8 and 10 am. The road stays closed until 5am on Monday morning. The diversionary route for cars appears to be going to Old Street roundabout and back.

If you don't fancy venturing out, they're providing live webcam coverage.

Crane arrives at Shoreditch High Street

I've just received a set of pictures from Antonio, who works in the building overlooking Shoreditch High Street. This is what TfL call "the largest crane in the UK" (it appears to be this one), and will be used for this weekend's bridge move. I've made them into a panorama:
They weren't joking, were they?

Update: Photos of the bridge going in and in place and a map of what's what

New GE19 bridge gains temporary extension

I was on a train out of Liverpool Street earlier today and was surprised to see the new GE19 bridge had gained an appendage on its west end.

I went back this evening with a camera:
In a couple of month's time the bridge is going to be slid to the left over the main line, and this extension ought to guide the bridge itself onto the western abutment. They've made it curve upwards slightly suggesting they the structure to sag on its way across. The extension looks long enough that by the time the bridge is in its final position, the tip could be hovering somewhere over Brick Lane. (see map)

(by the way, the line of concrete blocks in the foreground correspond roughly with where the back wall of the platform at Shoreditch was before the cutting was filled in)

Meanwhile just down the road, the Shoreditch High Street bridge has gained its uprights and looks close to ready to go:
The hoarding advertises the bridge move and road closure in two weeks' time and says the "largest crane in the UK" will be used. Bus users are advised to allow "up to 40 minutes extra" for their journeys.

ELL bridge move diary dates

We now have provisional dates confirmed for when each of the three major bridges being built for the East London Line extension are to be moved into place:

• Local signs state the Shoreditch High Street bridge (pictured) will be moved on the weekend of 29-30 March, with the road closed throughout.
• The GE19 bridge will be moved starting Sunday May 4th. Liverpool Street station will be closed from 1.30am until 3.30am on Tuesday morning. The date was mentioned in these lecture notes and is confirmed by page 87 of Network Rail's Anglia possessions register, assuming "Structures work 0m 48ch" refers to it.
• The New Cross Gate bridge will go in on on the weekend of May 10-11, a date given explicitly on page 177 of the Network Rail Southern Region possessions register.

According to the lecture notes, the Shoreditch bridge will be lifted and the other two will be slid. Thanks to reader abigailb for emailing the Shoreditch High Street info and the photo above.

East London Line progress photos: March 2008

Another month, another walk through the untamed pastures of E2. As an accompaniment to these pictures you should take a look at this set of notes from a recent lecture on construction progess. Last month's photos are here.


Dalston Junction, this time from the north end. This was all still bare earth at the beginning of the year.


Haggerston station. Moulds for the concrete have been put up, ready for pouring. The lecture notes mention that they were forced to demolish the viaduct here, as it was structurally unsound.


Hoxton station. I'm no idea what this is the foundation of, as the station is meant to be entirely under the arches, but they seem to be making good progress whatever. On the right, the arches have been cleaned out.


This is part of the curve from the end of the Broad Street viaduct to the crossing of Shoreditch High Street (see map). Since my last visit they've closed off Holywell Lane, creating one continuous building site for the length of the new viaduct. The pillars have been there a couple of months, so the closure and the scaffolding going up suggest they're about to do the deck.


The new Shoreditch High Street bridge is taking shape in Bishopsgate Goods Yard - it's gained arches but is missing its vertical tension bars. The concrete has been cast for the eastern abutment, and it's now wrapped in black plastic (above the red van). The western abutment (just out of shot to the right) is still bare rebar. Allegedly it'll be moved into place this month.

The bridge is bigger than it looks here - a diagram I have shows the arch as 11m high and 36m across (shorter than the similar 45m Regent's Canal bridge), and it will be positioned around 6m above road level.


At Shoreditch High Street station, they're busy pouring the slab for the viaduct deck.


The replacement GE19 bridge is now fully assembled - the bench in front of the hoarding gives a sense of its epic scale. The bridge will be pushed into place at the beginning of May.


Part of the huge depot construction site at New Cross Gate. This was taken from a moving train - there's a lot more going on than was captured in this picture.


Northbound trains heading for the ELL will cross the mainline on a flyover, descending this ramp within the depot site.

I didn't get a picture of the activity on the west side of the tracks, where a similar ramp is being built and the bridge itself is being assembled. The bridge is similar in design to the GE19 bridge above, though only the deck and a couple of uprights are in place. Also like the GE19 bridge, it will be moved into place in May.


The old ELL platform at New Cross Gate, which has lost its conductor rails and buffer stop. This track will become the through line for southbound ELL trains by connecting it to the main line south of the station.

Next installment (April 2008) »

ELL phase 2: TfL want DfT funding

December's board papers contained a suggestion TfL could get Phase 2 of the East London Line extension paid for to mitigate the effects of the Thameslink project. This month's board papers are a bit more aggressive about it:

The Thameslink Programme will result in fewer terminating platforms being available at London Bridge from the start of construction works in 2012. As a result, London Bridge will have less capacity. The current South London Line (SLL) service, which runs between London Bridge and Victoria, is very likely to be removed from London Bridge; this is most unsatisfactory and requires mitigation. ELL Phase 2b will provide a 4tph service along the SLL between Clapham Junction and Dalston Junction assisting delivery of the Thameslink Programme as a link to the Docklands (via Canada Water) and City (via Shoreditch High Street Station) is retained. A report detailing the benefits of ELL Phase 2 for the Thameslink Programme has been prepared and funding discussions have commenced with the DfT.

Phase 2 is the currently unfunded branch from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction, mostly along the South London Line. See the dotted orange line on this map.

DLR to Shoreditch and Farringdon

In 2004, the DLR commissioned a study into possible future routes called "Horizon 2020". They seem to have quietly forgotten about it, at least publicly, but I spotted a mention of the results in this Hackney Council report:

Three schemes remain under review in spring 2006. These are Bank – Farringdon, Bank – Liverpool Street – Shoreditch (Bishopsgate Goodsyard site), and Bank – Charing Cross.

The Charing Cross scheme has been widely discussed and even appears on one of the Crossrail maps. The other two are complete news to me. The route to Farringdon would surely involve the abandoned Thameslink tracks from Moorgate, and the route to Liverpool St would be a logical extension of the overrun tunnel that already points northeast.

[Update: A commenter prompted me to check where the Bank overrun tunnel goes. Although at least one diagram shows it heading for Liverpool Street, I've found several credible sources suggesting it heads northwest torwards Moorgate. My mistake. ]

Of course I have no idea if any of these are still being considered, but it's interesting to know they were at one point.

East London Line progress pictures

Time for another look at East London Line construction progress. You might want to look at the last one and the map of Shoreditch first.

We'll start with the dreaming spires of Dalston Junction - it recently gained a huge assortment of cranes, drills and piling rigs poking out of the station cutting. The trackbed has been tarmacced to allow road access, via a gate on the north-south bit of Richmond Road. They've only just started serious work here, and given the complex plan for the site it's likely to be the last bit to be completed, determining when the line opens.

Next, Haggerston station. They've demolished a couple of viaduct arches to build the station entrance.

The site of Hoxton station. Nothing much to see yet.

The end of the old viaduct in Shoreditch. A new viaduct will curve round to the right, leading to...

The bridge over Shoreditch High Street. The rebar for the abutments on either side is almost complete (left photo, surrounded by scaffolding), and a big bit of bridge deck has been delivered to the site. It'll be very similar in design and size to the new bridge over Regent's Canal between Haggerston and Hoxton.

After going through Shoreditch High Street station (which hasn't changed much since last month) and crossing Brick Lane, we come to the bridge over the Great Eastern Main Line. The abutments were just frames last month, but now they're solid concrete.

The massive framework for the bridge looms over the old Shoreditch station, with Weaver House in the distance. It's a lot like the bridge over Kingsland Road, but twice as long and, carrying only two tracks, half as wide.

Next Installment (March 2008) >>

A complete map of the East London Line route through Shoreditch

I've complained before about the lack of a decent map of all the bits and pieces going in at Shoreditch for the East London Line extension, so I thought I'd make one. Includes bonus side elevation.

Later in the week I'll be posting about some of the detail of what's being built, as well as linking to the various source documents.

East London Line progress in pictures

As you probably know, Liverpool Street station is currently closed to allow the demolition of bridge GE19, so that a new bridge carrying the extended East London Line can be built across roughly the same spot. Here are some photos I've taken today around the area (click to enlarge).

Firstly, Liverpool Street station itself. Despite the completely blank departures board, it's surprisingly busy.

This is the gap where the bridge was, from the south side. The wall abutting Brick Lane on the far left is all that remains. Between the digger and the houses are what appear to be giant moulds for casting supports for the new bridge.

From the same spot, but turning slightly to the right. The demolished bridge would previously have dominated this picture. The building on the right is Shoreditch tube station.

Here's the same scene from the opposite direction...

...and here's a photo taken from roughly the same place on Saturday.

Finally, here's the new viaduct that will support Shoreditch High Street station. The artist's impression on the hoarding shows the same view a couple of years from now.

Next installment (February 2008) >>