STATION MODERNISATION
All images courtesy Network Rail
Half way house
Rail Technology Magazine asks Ian Fry how the reconstruction works at King’s Cross station are progressing
on the King’s Cross station project, there is still much to do. According to Network Rail project director Ian Fry, the project is about half finished
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“We have completed work in two of the packages, whilst we have also made progress in all of the others.”
This means that works to refurbish and renovate the eastern range building - which constituted the first package of works - have now been completed.
“This was a challenging task because of the building’s grade one listed status but has now turned what was a very run down building into what is now modern offices.
“This package was critical, because we needed to move around 800 staff from the western range – where we needed vacant possession – into these offices before we could begin works on the western range. This was achieved around a year ago now and was the first major package to be completed.
“The next major piece of work was to construct the new platform which sits underneath the eastern range building. This actually involved a little bit more than simply constructing a new platform because in order to get the trains in we have had to demolish an old grade one listed building whilst also creating all
66 rtm
lthough much has been achieved by engineers working
of the siding functionality which was there before and shift it all over.
“This turned it into a fairly major piece of infrastructure work as well as building a new platform. Again though, I am pleased to say that this was opened on time in May this year by the new transport secretary Philip Hammond in his first public engagement.
“This new platform was also crucial to other projects taking place at King’s Cross including the renovation of all platforms, to give them another ten year life expectancy along with the introduction of a new passenger footbridge with lifts. The new platform was crucial to these works because it allowed us to shut one platform island at a time, which is not only the most efficient way to do that work but is also the most customer friendly.”
The completion of the new platform has therefore facilitated the beginning of a series of planned blockades around the island platforms with the work running for a year.
The second package involves work to the main train shed roof which also began about a year ago.
“It’s a vast roof with each barrel being almost forty metres in width and about 250 metres long. The challenge here was to completely strip the roof including all coverings, some of which contained asbestos. Then we had to take the paint down to the bare metal which allowed us to repair the steel work and then repaint and recover it.”
Along with using as many of the
same materials as possible from when the roof was originally built, engineers will ultimately be including some new technology in the new structure in the form of photovoltaic cells.
“This would have been a challenging enough job on its own but we needed to do this without disrupting the train services underneath, whilst also noting that the platform structures were not strong enough to take any significant scaffold loading.
“The reason that the start-up for this particular package has taken such a long time was because of the huge amount of enabling works which have had to be undertaken to allow the roof works to proceed.”
The first thing that had to be done was to erect a fairly substantial access deck at the north of the station.
“This was key because there was no other way to access the roof as it cannot be accessed from the south because the southern concourse is in the way. Then we built two very lightweight deck structures which slide down the train shed roof on toblerone beams which are then fitted to the walls of the train shed.
“This is quite a novel approach, not just because we are using a lightweight structure, but because the decks run down the beams on frictionless bearings which are akin to fairground ride bearings that you might usually find on a rollercoaster.
“This enables us to have a deck which does two different things - it provides a working platform for the men to access the roof whilst effectively acting as a
Oct/Nov 10
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