NEWS
Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy (TUCA) and a topping-out ceremony has been held.
S
The Academy, at Aldersbrook in East London, will train at least 3,500 people to work on Crossrail and will ensure the right skills are in place
tructural building work has now finished on the UK
for any tunnelling project. The only comparable facility in Europe is in Switzerland.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, via the Skills Funding Agency, has invested £5m in the Academy, while Crossrail will pay in £7.5m. TUCA will run across two levels and 3,600 sq. metres. It will also act as the London centre
for the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE).
It will be fully open by September this year, offering both the existing rail workforce and new entrants the chance to boost their skills and get the right qualifications and safety training to work on tunnel construc- tion. All Crossrail contractors are re- quired to advertise any new opportu-
nities with Jobcentre Plus 48 hours before they are advertised elsewhere, and Crossrail is also committed to delivering a minimum of 400 ap- prenticeships through its supply chain over the lifetime of the project, and is looking to deliver more.
For more about the next genera- tion of rail engineers, see our ‘Next Generation’ feature on pages 80-85.
T
he contract for design improve- ment works at 13 Crossrail sta-
tions west of Paddington – from Maidenhead in Berkshire to Acton Main Line station – has been awarded to AECOM.
The works will involve platform extensions, more step-free access, station refurbishments and turn- back facilities. Several bridges near stations on the route will also be redesigned to allow for over-head electrical cables.
John Crosfield, AECOM’s project
director, said: “Our team has the range of skills required to meet the challenging programme in a multi- disciplinary rail environment and is committed to providing the pro- ject with robust design solutions.”
Some stations, including Hanwell, Iver, Langley and Burnham, already meet most Crossrail requirements. The most intensive works are re- quired at Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton and Maidenhead, which require extensive station remodel- ling, track works, access improve- ments and platform extensions.
rossrail has invited expressions of interest for contractors to install the signalling system it will use in its central section.
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It has placed a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union seeking expressions of interest for the approximately £75m contract, which will cover the design, manufacture, supply, installation, testing and commission of an automatic train control system for the central London section of the route.
Crossrail rolling stock will also be capable of operating with the European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2 signalling system and with the principle legacy signalling systems found on UK rail infrastructure.
Crossrail programme director Andy Mitchell said: “Crossrail’s preference is to adopt a Communications Based Train Control signalling system as it is technically and operationally proven and is successfully used by many metro systems around the world.”
G
ermany-based Herrenknecht AG will manufacture at least
six of the seven-plus tunnel boring machines (TBMs) needed for Crossrail’s construction.
The first two TBMs will arrive by boat from Schwanau in early 2012 ahead of being launched from Royal Oak in spring 2012.
Two more will arrive for the eastern running tunnels in the middle of the year, with the final two of the six coming to Stepney Green in late 2012. At least seven of the 850-tonne TBMs and ten individual tunnel drives will be needed to construct the 6m diameter tunnels.
There are no UK-based tunnel boring machine manufacturers, but Londoners will be given the chance to name the TBMs and fol- low their progress online.
The TBMs will run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, except for schedules maintenance breaks and some public holidays, with 20 or so staff – 12 on-board and eight outside.
As each advances forward, pre- cast concrete segments will be built in rings behind it.
The concrete segments for the western running
tunnels be-
tween Royal Oak and Farringdon will be manufactured at Old Oak Common and transported to the TBM by rail.
The five tunnels, 42km in total, will be:
• Royal Oak to Farringdon west (Drive X) - approx 6.1km;
• Limmo Peninsula in the Royal Docks to Farringdon east (Drive Y) - approx 8.3km;
8 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 11
• Stepney Green to Pudding Mill Lane (Drive Z) - approx 2.7km;
• Limmo Peninsula in the Royal Docks to Victoria Dock Portal (Drive G) - approx 0.9km;
• Plumstead to North Woolwich © Herrenknecht AG (Drive H) - approx 2.6km.
Construction of the first tunnel portal at Royal Oak got under- way in January 2010 and is due to complete in early 2012.
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