Enable Infrastructure Liverpool Street Christmas Blockade
Enable Infrastructure Liverpool Street Christmas Blockade
4 January 2021
Between Christmas Eve and the early hours of 4 January, Enable Infrastructure (formerly known as BCM Construction) has been undertaking some vital work for the Crossrail Project at London Liverpool Street station, which is the fifth busiest station in the country.
We successfully delivered the core enabling works to track, OLE, and signalling between platforms 15 and 18 at Liverpool Street in preparation for a second major possession at Easter 2021, which will result in platforms 16 and 17 being extended to accommodate nine-car trains and the closure of platform 18.
The works included the installation of slab-track in platforms 17 and 18, removal of switch and crossings (S&C), installation of new buffer stops and all of the associated signalling and OLE alterations to suit the revised layout. The works involved extensive use of a road-rail access point at Bethnal Green with four Unimogs (each with 10 trailers) running hundreds of tonnes of materials safely in and out of the station.
The successful completion of the platform extensions will enable MTR Elizabeth Line to introduce nine-car trains later this year, providing additional capacity for passengers.
We are pleased to confirm that we are on target to complete the works as planned in Easter 2021, and most significantly Enable Infrastructure, with the help of our enabling partners Enable Hire (formerly known as CHS), Enable Design (formerly known as Equate Design Limited) and Crewit Resourcing Limited, delivered all of the works required with zero injuries over the 11-day blockade.
Operations Director Dan Wiscombe said: “I am extremely proud and delighted that our works at Liverpool Street over the Christmas period have been delivered safely and on time. It has been a tremendous collaborative effort with MTR, our client, to deliver Stage 1 of this project. My sincere thanks to everyone involved from Enable Infrastructure, MTR, and our specialist supply chain, in giving up their Christmas celebrations to work tirelessly to achieve an outstanding result. At this halfway stage our concentration now moves to Stage 2 at Easter, and we will be working hard over the next few months in preparation for the successful completion in the spring.”
Along with the challenges Storm Bella threw our way, our team on-site successfully managed the added risks associated with Covid-19 including wearing face masks, social distancing, temperature tracking, and the use of Tracepass – our internal track and trace app.
In summary, our valued client MTR Elizabeth line, have trusted us to design and build extensions to platform 16 and 17 at Liverpool Street and remove platform 18 to enable them to introduce their new 205m long Class 345 full-length trains, which following the successful delivery of the Christmas work we are well on track to achieve.
A big thank you to our superb supply chain partners who have supported us with this project.