Channel Tunnel Rail Station, Kings Cross, London
| Contract: |
Channel Tunnel Rail Station, Kings Cross, London |
| Contractors: |
Costains, Bachy & Laing O'Rourke |
| Concrete Supplier: |
Hanson Premix Concrete |
| Volume: |
270,000 m3 |
| Admixtures Used: |
Rheobuild 716, Glenium C315, Glenium Sky 544, (Took over from 716), Pozzolith 555, Pozzolith 322N & Glenium Stream 2006L. |
Background
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is Britain's first new mainline railway for over 100 years and the final London leg into St Pancras station is due for completion in 2007. This massive project has involved raising existing railway tracks, building the Thameslink station box below St Pancras, working with London Underground on its new King's Cross St Pancras station, keeping traffic flowing along Euston Road, lowering surrounding roads, building a viaduct for Eurostar trains and new platforms at St Pancras for Midland Main Line and suburban services, as well as constructing five new bridges and two new junctions.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is Britain's first new mainline railway for over 100 years and the final London leg into St Pancras station is due for completion in 2007. This massive project has involved raising existing railway tracks, building the Thameslink station box below St Pancras, working with London Underground on its new King's Cross St Pancras station, keeping traffic flowing along Euston Road, lowering surrounding roads, building a viaduct for Eurostar trains and new platforms at St Pancras for Midland Main Line and suburban services, as well as constructing five new bridges and two new junctions.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is Britain's first new mainline railway for over 100 years and the final London leg into St Pancras station is due for completion in 2007. This massive project has involved raising existing railway tracks, building the Thameslink station box below St Pancras, working with London Underground on its new King's Cross St Pancras station, keeping traffic flowing along Euston Road, lowering surrounding roads, building a viaduct for Eurostar trains and new platforms at St Pancras for Midland Main Line and suburban services, as well as constructing five new bridges and two new junctions.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is Britain's first new mainline railway for over 100 years and the final London leg into St Pancras station is due for completion in 2007. This massive project has involved raising existing railway tracks, building the Thameslink station box below St Pancras, working with London Underground on its new King's Cross St Pancras station, keeping traffic flowing along Euston Road, lowering surrounding roads, building a viaduct for Eurostar trains and new platforms at St Pancras for Midland Main Line and suburban services, as well as constructing five new bridges and two new junctions.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is Britain's first new mainline railway for over 100 years and the final London leg into St Pancras station is due for completion in 2007. This massive project has involved raising existing railway tracks, building the Thameslink station box below St Pancras, working with London Underground on its new King's Cross St Pancras station, keeping traffic flowing along Euston Road, lowering surrounding roads, building a viaduct for Eurostar trains and new platforms at St Pancras for Midland Main Line and suburban services, as well as constructing five new bridges and two new junctions.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is Britain's first new mainline railway for over 100 years and the final London leg into St Pancras station is due for completion in 2007. This massive project has involved raising existing railway tracks, building the Thameslink station box below St Pancras, working with London Underground on its new King's Cross St Pancras station, keeping traffic flowing along Euston Road, lowering surrounding roads, building a viaduct for Eurostar trains and new platforms at St Pancras for Midland Main Line and suburban services, as well as constructing five new bridges and two new junctions.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is Britain's first new mainline railway for over 100 years and the final London leg into St Pancras station is due for completion in 2007. This massive project has involved raising existing railway tracks, building the Thameslink station box below St Pancras, working with London Underground on its new King's Cross St Pancras station, keeping traffic flowing along Euston Road, lowering surrounding roads, building a viaduct for Eurostar trains and new platforms at St Pancras for Midland Main Line and suburban services, as well as constructing five new bridges and two new junctions.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is Britain's first new mainline railway for over 100 years and the final London leg into St Pancras station is due for completion in 2007. This massive project has involved raising existing railway tracks, building the Thameslink station box below St Pancras, working with London Underground on its new King's Cross St Pancras station, keeping traffic flowing along Euston Road, lowering surrounding roads, building a viaduct for Eurostar trains and new platforms at St Pancras for Midland Main Line and suburban services, as well as constructing five new bridges and two new junctions.
The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is Britain's first new mainline railway for over 100 years and the final London leg into St Pancras station is due for completion in 2007. This massive project has involved raising existing railway tracks, building the Thameslink station box below St Pancras, working with London Underground on its new King's Cross St Pancras station, keeping traffic flowing along Euston Road, lowering surrounding roads, building a viaduct for Eurostar trains and new platforms at St Pancras for Midland Main Line and suburban services, as well as constructing five new bridges and two new junctions. St Pancras’s transformation will turn it into one of the largest interchanges in Europe. An estimated 50 million people a year will pass through he finished King's Cross St Pancras rail complex’s and condensed interchange of railway and tube lines, well above Gatwick airport's 32 million users.
Impressively, about 90% of the concrete used in CTRL contracts has contained BASF admixtures. The use of concrete within the new Channel Tunnel Rail Station itself had many different aspects as it involved the station itself, the rail link, road and underground within one project.
The project demanded high performance, aesthetic concrete with a design life of 120 years, as the architects’ design required a virtually white concrete with a finish second to none – which was a key reason for the specification of Degussa’s admixtures.
Below ground, aspects of the Thameslink box were particularly demanding, as it was initially planned to shut down the train line for 26 weeks, working around the clock to place 800m³ of concrete each day. However Camden Town denied permission for this proposal so a 32-week work programme working 12 hours a day was implemented instead. This led to complications in meeting the deadline as there was no option to overrun. Self-compacting concrete (SCC) using BASF’s Glenium admixtures was specified to save time and labour placing the concrete, allowing completion within the fixed timeframe with very satisfactory results.
BASF admixtures were also used in the 1700 deep piles into London clay on the project.