Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

I started on Monday this week on the Northern Line Extension (NLE) at the Battersea Site. The project is a JV between Laing O’Rourke and Ferrovial Agroman known as (FLo).

The project client is London Underground (LU) tho
ugh the extension and stations are heavily integrated into the whole regeneration of the area. So Battersea Development (who are part funding the NLE along with 41 other developers) are leaning quite heavily on London Underground. Phase 3 of the Battersea development will sits on top of the station box. A big change to the structure caused a change to the design of the station which has resulted in an 8 month delay, and the design for the station is still being finished. Regardless, the political pressure (Boris Johnson’s office) would still like the development to be finished for 2020. I believe the commercial teams are still debating who will pay for this. The change to the structure caused the design to be changed delaying and extending the project length.

The Project

The project is a 3.5km extension of the Northern Line which will continue the Northern Line from Kennington with two new Stations at Battersea and Nine Elms. The line will have 100m overrun tunnel (under the cats and dogs home) which will serve to store two trains over night for morning service.  That tunnel will eventually connect the line to Clapham Junction. The value of digging just 3.5km with two TBMs is apparently justified. Clapham extension too can’t be done now as there are no funds and apparently Clapham junction cant take the additional capacity just yet.

In outline, the project is split into four sites. Two stations at Battersea and Nine Elms and two shafts at Kennington. The box at Battersea will consist of the station box and a crossover box.  The crossover box (space for trains to swap sides before they return) will be used as the launch tunnel for two TBMs (Tunnel Boring Machines). The station at Nine Elms is relatively independent other than they must be at depth before the TBMs arrive. The last two sites are the shaft that connect to the existing line at the Kennington Loop where the TMBs will be lifted out. The shafts will then remain as ventilation and emergency escape for the tunnels.

Joint Venture.

I understand that Ferrovial were brought onboard primarily for their tunnelling experience where as Laing are taking the lead on the station boxes and the shafts. Despite this the site office is a 50/50 mix from both companies. I understand there is a slight friction with the Spanish side of the team as they are very commercially savvy but see the role of a site/section engineer in a very different way. Commercially sensitive material is apparently spoken in Spanish which makes by ability to speak the lingo quite helpful.