A series of updates about the Northern line extension website has outlined how they are restarting work in their socially distanced construction sites. The extension will take the line from Kennington to Battersea Power Station, with an intermediate station at Nine Elms, next to the rebuilt Sainsburys.
Battersea Power Station station is the more complete of the two new stations, having managed to get escalators working just before the lockdown hit.
As works resume on-site, the construction teams will focus on power, cabling, door installation, fire prevention and testing and commissioning. Installation of the cooling and ventilation systems will continue as well as premises fit-out of the ticket hall including tiling and wall cladding.
(c) TfL
At the new Nine Elms station, the last of three portacabins have been removed to create more space to work in and a car park so construction workers can avoid using public transport.
The team has made a start with the hard landscaping works in ‘Pascal Square’ which is located between the two station boxes.
While the hard landscaping works will continue to progress through the coming months, the mechanical and electrical (M&E) teams will return to fitting out the electricity substation, located at ground level, and fitting out cabling in the tube station below ground.
External façade works will recommence towards the end of June on the eastern station building.
(c) TfL
Over at Kennington Green, where one of the construction shafts was dug, they’ve completed the breakout of the temporary shed foundations and proceeded with applying the waterproofing layer and concrete protective layer to the top of the basement structure.
When completed, the shaft will be used to provide ventilation to the tube tunnels below.
Over the coming months, they will resume works to install the brickwork façade to the head house. Below ground, the mechanical and electrical teams will continue installing electrical and ventilation equipment, cable trays, ducting and doors to the rooms within the shaft corridors.
(c) TfL
Meanwhile, the second of the two construction and ventilation shafts at Kennington Park is in a similar state
Over the coming months, they will resume works to install the brickwork façade to the head house. Below ground, the mechanical and electrical teams will continue their work on the fit-out within the shaft itself.
(c) TfL
When will they put the sign on the front? It’s supposed to say “BATTERSEA POWER STATION STATION” and I’m looking forward to that.
If it says “Battersea Power Station” then the name of the station is “Battersea Power”…
Nope – the roundels at, for example, Holborn station say “Holborn “, so the ones at Battersea Power Station will say just that – however, when we give people directions, we might say “meet at Holborn station”, and add the station to signify which part of Holborn to meet at — the same will happen with Battersea Power Station (station).
I imagine that people will say, “Meet at Battersea Power Station tube” or “Meet at Battersea Power Station shopping centre” to avoid confusion.
I’ve checked on Google Street View and it does indeed say HOLBORN STATION on the front of Holborn, so will be interesting to see what they do here!
@Ian: This is of course true at platform level, but I can’t think of a single station anywhere on the network where ‘station’ isn’t included in the street-level name.
That being said, there is precedent for not applying rules like this when they are too silly: when “London” was added to the front of all major NR termini in the capital for example only one station was excluded: London Bridge, which would logically have had to be renamed “London London Bridge”
The irony of of making a car park for workers so they can avoid public transport… I would suggest if they need to do that, then they perhaps didn’t need to re-open the site to finish the works. (other than for the poor sods who wouldn’t have a job otherwise.)
The aim is to reduce the burden on the public transport network, so that other people can travel safely.
There’s nothing wrong with working safely on site – but if you can reduce the crowding on public transport, why wouldn’t you do that?
Ian
Have you heard if the extension is still on schedule to open September 2021?
Thanks
David
Perhaps one station should be called Leeds Square and the other Bradford Circus, then Boris would clearly have kept his promise to up level the North!
Now that they’re opening up a carpark are the workers being compensated for the congestion charges and anyone using their car to and from work should check their insurance policies to make sure that they’re covered. I know that my policy does not cover me to & from work.
Isn’t “driving to work” what the majority of people in the UK outside London do every day, in their cars, without being compensated by their employer, using their regular insurance?
(and the areas covered by the NLE are, albeit narrowly, outside of the CC zone)
It seems strange to me that the tunnels are complete & test trains have been running, yet the stations are still not finished.