NLE Project Introduction
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.
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Welcome to the show!
Typically complex stakeholders. Not wanting to force AER1 upon you but what’s the contractual relationship there?
And who’s the designer?
Have you advertised your language skills at all?
Jonny, good to see the northern line extension has come off. Randomly I did a STEM extension training thing a week ago and as part of your project you (FLO) are contractually required to deliver STEM training to the local schools so probably quite a good thing if you can get involved.
FLO JV also have a section of the Thames Tideway Tunnel so I think their joint venture relationship is growing and growing.
To add to Guz’s AER 1 questions, it would be interesting to know the risk split between the 2 parts of the JV but not sure that will be easy to find out.
In terms of tasks, Laing are fresh from doing stations on crossrail so playing to their strengths.
Sounds good, looking forward to hearing more.
Thanks for the Welcome.
Guz, LU have a Land and Works Agreement (TWA – a type of legal agreement with some restrictions) with Battersea Developers (as we are building on their land). The permanent works designer are Mott Macdonald. They are generally well regarded here but there is a breakdown in communication.
Damo, No idea about the JV split, but probably worth finding out. Ref STEM, I actually hosted a group of kids from the borough explaining what was going on, on site. Part of a week long programme explaining infrastructure and industry.
Henry, as for the Spanish. Yeah it’s all well known know. To be fair, most of them are from the north of Spain and quite professional. The novelty of a Brit that understands them is still pretty strong. No one has tried to call me Spanish yet. At best, it should allow me to engage with the team a bit better. At worst I will at least be able to practice my Spanish.
Jonny, keep your language skill under your hat until you think you can get a decent return for having to show your hand. You will learn a lot more by just sitting and listening, initially anyway.
Hi Jonny,
Do you know what the structural changes were for? When I was working on Battersea Phase one the rumour was that someone hadn’t got the loadings for phase 3 down to the station box quiet right.
Apparently the changes to the design are quite old ones. They happened in Aug 2014 but critically it was during the signing of the contract between FLo and LU. I assume that there is a link back to the phase 3 side as LU were always going to be constructing the foundations for the future building on top.
Rich,
Having recently joined Bouygues UK (preferred contractor for Phase 3) and knowing that Phase 3 is still being designed, the scenario you describe would certainly not be a surprise.
Rich McClure