Tracklaying complete on London’s Crossrail project

Contractors working on London’s Crossrail project have completed track installation work, marking another key milestone in the £14.8bn project ahead of the opening of the Elizabeth Line in December 2018.

Britain’s transport secretary Mr Chris Grayling, and London’s deputy mayor for transport Ms Val Shawcross, joined Crossrail chairman Sir Terry Morgan, and chief executive Mr Andrew Wolstenholme at an event held in the eastbound tunnel of the new Whitechapel station on September 13 where they witnessed installation of the final rail clips by Ms Ellen McGuinness, track quality control engineer.

Construction trains are now able to run the full length of the new 21km twin-bore tunnels from Plumstead in east London via nine new underground stations to Royal Oak in the west.

More than 1000 contractors have installed 63,000 sleepers and 51.4km of rail since fitting out of the tunnel began in late 2014 with work undertaken by a joint venture of Costain, TSO, France, and Alstom which was awarded the £350m contract in April 2013. Over 13,500m3 of concrete was also used as part of track installation.

“The Elizabeth Line will transform rail transport in London with better and faster journeys for passengers and the official completion of the track is a hugely significant milestone towards delivering this scheme on time and within available funding,” Grayling says.

The Crossrail project will now focus on installation of platform screen doors, signalling, tunnel ventilation, communications systems, and 25kV ac overhead electrification.

Source: railjournal.com