Paddington station excavation reaches London's Crossrail train tunnels
12 September 2014GREAT BRITAIN - Costain Skanska JV has excavated down to the new Crossrail tunnels,
breaking into the top of the tunnels 16m below ground level, as part of construction of the new station at Paddington.
Costain Skanska will excavate the earth between the two tunnels creating a large open station platform level. Once excavation is completed, they will start building the station platforms and laying the track bed.
Andy Mooney, construction manager, Costain Skanska JV said: "Reaching the tunnels marks an important phase in the construction of Paddington station. The excavation down 16m underneath Eastbourne Terrace will allow us, once we have removed all of the 2,640 individual tunnel segments, to start the construction of the platforms and track bed."
Tunnelling machines Phyllis and Ada built the new train tunnels through Paddington at the beginning of 2013 ahead of completing their 6.8km journeys to Farringdon in autumn 2013.
Following the completion of the platform and track bed construction, system-wide contractor ATC (Alstom, TSO & Costain) will commence fit-out of the new tunnels with track and other rail infrastructure.
The new Crossrail station is being constructed adjacent to the existing Paddington National Rail station under Eastbourne Terrace. The 250m long and 30m wide spacious station will include a 120m long glass canopy. A Cloud Index artwork by artist Spencer Finch will be embedded into the canopy.
