Crossrail / Elizabeth line
London, UK · 2009–2022 · £18.8bn (2022 prices)
The judgement call
Account-gated at launchSuccessful implementation of offsite solutions and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) at Liverpool Street station to accelerate programme delivery and recover lost time. - Effective use of NEC3: Engineering and Construction Contract for procurement, setting clear best practice targets. - Significant delays and cost overruns at Bond Street station due to tunnelling problems and subsequent contractor change, highlighting challenges in complex interfaces and project management. - Lessons learned regarding system integration and system safety challenges, emphasizing the complexity of large-scale railway systems.
Key engineering challenges
Constructing the Canary Wharf station box, a 256m long, 30m wide, six-storey deep structure rising from below river bed, utilizing silent piling rigs. - Tunnelling through varied ground conditions (London clays, sands, gravels, wet chalk and flint under River Thames) with real-time settlement control to minimize surface impact. - Navigating a maze of existing infrastructure (sewers, Tube lines, Post Office Railway) and archaeological finds (Bedlam burial site) during station construction in dense urban areas. - Managing complex logistics for construction in operational railway environments and highly constrained central London sites.
Project facts
- Client / owner
- Crossrail Ltd, Transport for London (TfL)
- Lead contractor
- Canary Wharf Contractors (Canary Wharf station box), Laing O’Rourke (Liverpool Street station), Costain Skanska JV (Bond Street station - initially), Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Vinci (BBMV) (Whitechapel station)
- Lead designers
- Grimshaw (lead design architect), Arup (technical design engineering), Atkins (in JV with Arup for Tottenham Court Road), SYSTRA (traction power, OLE, signalling, control system)
- Project type
- new build | upgrade
- Scale
- 100km+ railway; 10 new stations; 31 station upgrades; 42km of tunnels; 8 TBMs; 220,000 concrete segments
- Disciplines
- civil; structural; mechanical; electrical; systems; tunnelling; environmental; logistics
- Standards & frameworks
- NEC3; CDM
Sources: New Civil Engineer (May 2022, https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/elizabeth-line-opening-8-civil-engineering-challenges-overcome-during-13-years-of-construction-24-05-2022/); ICE proceedings (May 2017, https://www.ice.org.uk/news-views-insights/inside-infrastructure/crossrail-delivering-london-s-new-elizabeth-line); The Guardian (March 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/13/elizabeth-line-crossrail-opening-london); Reuters (May 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/londons-24-billion-crossrail-finally-opens-2022-05-23/); Parliament Commons Library (Nov 2024, https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2024-0146/); Crossrail Learning Legacy (https://learninglegacy.crossrail.co.uk/)