Project of the Year
An impressively high degree of collaboration while delivering Crossrail West has led to Network Rail, Bechtel and the supply chain winning the National Rail Awards category for Major Project of the Year. PAUL STEPHEN reports
Crossrail West scoops the 2018 National Rail Award for Major Project of the Year.
With the Central section of Crossrail that runs beneath central London being delivered by Crossrail Ltd, it has been the responsibility of Network Rail to upgrade existing sections of main line to the east and west of the Capital in support of the introduction of Elizabeth Line services from next year.
Works on Crossrail’s Western section covered a 26-mile stretch of Brunel’s iconic Great Western Main Line (GWML) from Paddington to Maidenhead, and were formally completed at the end of September.
With a budget of £1.4 billion (increased from £1.1bn to reflect scope changes necessary to accommodate an extension of Crossrail services to Reading and the Intercity Express Programme), Crossrail West has taken more than eight years and 13 million work hours to complete.
Despite the changes, all stages of the project have been delivered on time or ahead of schedule.
Main elements included the extension of overhead line equipment on 12 miles of railway from Hayes & Harlington station in west London to Maidenhead, which required the installation of over 1,400 piled foundations and 140 miles of overhead line equipment - equivalent to the distance between London and Sheffield.
To accommodate the new OLE, more than ten bridges were rebuilt to provide sufficient height clearance, a 132kV electricity supply from overhead pylons was diverted through a new 1.5km twin-bored tunnel, and signalling was completely renewed between Stockley and Maidenhead to prevent interference.
Energised in spring 2017, the extended OLE enabled the introduction of three new sets of rolling stock within a 12-month period, which created more than 4,000 extra seats into Paddington each morning.
Great Western Railway now operates a new fleet of Class 387 electric multiple units (EMUs) to Maidenhead, while Class 800 Intercity Express Trains have begun entering service to destinations as far west as Penzance.
Nine-car Class 345 EMUs are also now running from Paddington to Hayes & Harlington in advance of full Elizabeth Line services commencing next year.
Other elements of the programme included the largest signalling data upgrade ever undertaken on the network on a threemile approach into Paddington known as ‘Stage M’. After three years of data rewiring and testing, the interlocking data for all 500 routes on this section of track was uploaded last Christmas Eve, and paves the way for the overlaying of ETCS (European Train Control System) digital in-cab signalling technology, due to be installed in 2019.
Elsewhere, up to a mile of platform extensions have been built to accommodate 200-metre Class 345 Elizabeth Line trains, and four miles (6.5km) of new track has been laid at Westbourne Park to connect Crossrail’s Central section with the GWML.
New electrified sidings were also opened 18 months ahead of schedule in Spring 2017 at Maidenhead, West Ealing and Royal Oak to stable the new fleets of Great Western Railway and Elizabeth Line.
NR worked with Bechtel as the programme
delivery partner, while the scale and complex nature of the works required the expertise of more than five primary contractors, including Alstom and Amey (signalling), Balfour Beatty (OLE and track) and Telent (telecoms).
Judges commended the programme for its extraordinary culture of collaboration, not only with contractors but also communities and a complex network of stakeholders in order to mitigate disruption while working on and adjacent to one of the fastest and busiest stretches of main line in the UK.
These stakeholders included multiple passenger and freight train operators, nine local authorities, 30,000 lineside neighbours and passengers who take 36 million annual journeys across the work site.
With limited physical access, many contractors had to share worksites, possessions and even resources in order to deliver their works within tight timeframes.
Other challenges included the need to modernise some of the network’s oldest infrastructure, including the Grade 1-listed Paddington station in preparation for installation of 21st century signalling and OLE technology.
The works programme was further challenged in January 2018 following the collapse of Carillion, which was the primary contractor delivering critical track and OLE works around the Crossrail tunnel portal and Westbourne Park.
Other achievements included significant investment in skills and the community with 700 volunteers from the programme having touched the lives of 3,500 local people since 2014. 116 schools and community groups were visited, 80 work experience placements provided, and a further 40 additional work placements for young people in the London area who were not in education, employment or training and from a diverse background.
Additional highlights included the Paddington Science Club, held weekly at local primary schools, and the Budding Brunel programme, run in conjunction with the Construction Youth Trust and Career Ready Paddington Academy.
Judges also noted the programme’s safety record, which was the best within NR’s Infrastructure Projects division, and NR’s commitment to retain knowledge and skills gleaned from the project to change the way it approaches such major projects in future.
Rolling Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate was just 0.1740 per 100,000 work hours, while the programme consistently reported aboveaverage numbers of Close Calls under its ‘no blame’ culture, demonstrating high levels of understanding throughout the workforce.
Integrated safety teams included representatives from each contractor and NR to undertake joint reviews of work methodologies and to drive best practice, while Crossrail West also benefited from Bechtel performing an annual Bechtel Environmental Safety and Health audit.
This has allowed the programme to receive best practice advice drawn from other major projects across the globe, such as the Riyadh, Sydney and Athens metros.
To ensure that best practice is retained and transferred, representatives from the programme are taking part in ‘lessons learned’ workshops to pass on their findings to other national infrastructure projects currently being mobilised, such as HS2.
Many members of the Crossrail West team are also currently moving to NR’s Paddington to Reading (P2R) programme to work on upgrading other sections of track and stations on the GWML.
With limited physical access, many contractors had to share work sites, possessions and even resources in order to deliver their works with in tight timeframes.