Editor, UBM

August 24, 2015

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Victoria Station and Tottenham Court Road site visits – Women in Safety and Health

IMG_6500Over the course of two weeks, 16 women working in health and safety across a broad range of sectors visited three TfL station upgrades at Bond Street, Victoria and Tottenham Court Road as part of the Women in Health and Safety network established in June 2015.

These site visits were organised by Rhaynukaa Soni, HSE manager at Transport for London (TfL), where the aim was to give women who work in different sectors an opportunity to see how health and safety works in the construction and rail sectors and the challenges that are faced.

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Helen Rawlinson and Rhaynukaa Soni underground at Victoria Station Upgrade

Victoria Station upgrade

Following on from a visit to the Bond Street Station Upgrade last Monday for the Women in Safety site visits, I went to Transport for London at Victoria Tube station to find out how the station upgrade is progressing there.

“Victoria Tube station is one of the busiest places for transport in the UK,” explained Glenn Keelan, Programme Manager for the Victoria Station Upgrade, who talked us through the purpose of development project.

With the Network Rail station serving the south east of England, Gatwick Express route, the bus terminal, Victoria Coach Station, not to mention the 82 million passenger journeys through the Underground station that take place each year, it’s safe to say that Victoria Tube station is in need of improved capacity.

This programme of related projects started in 2006 with asbestos removal and a water management programme, and is due to be completed by mid-2018.

Glenn explained how this 12-year programme will make it much easier to access the Tube station and surrounding areas.

The Victoria line typically has south-end loaded ticket halls – meaning that along the line, passenger distribution tends to be more concentrated in the southern end of the station platforms.

Victoria Escalators

New escalators being installed at Victoria Station Upgrade

To solve this problem – and to allow people to exit North of Victoria street – new escalators are being built to allow better distribution along the platforms and a new subterranean ticket hall is being constructed to the North of the existing station.

In addition, the station is getting step-free access – allowing for passengers with limited mobility, or those just arriving in from the airport with lots of luggage, to enter and exit the station easily – and dedicated emergency services access.

We divided into two groups of three and split our time between the north and south ticket halls.

David Smith, Senior Construction Manager at TfL, Alex Thomson, Section Supervisor at TfL, and Peter Gow, Civil Engineer at TfL took the six of us around, highlighting the complex health and safety issues of the project and how they were overcome.

David apprised us of the Beyond Zero programme for health and safety – a contractor’s initiative supported by the London Underground team – which emphasizes a ‘Don’t Walk By’ culture to encourage personal responsibility and help address safety concerns on the spot.

Compared to the visit to the Bond Street Station Upgrade on Monday – where excavation is still taking place – the Victoria Station Upgrade seemed far nearer completion. Breezeblocks were in place showing the structure of the civil project, the escalators were being installed and it was easy to imagine what the station would eventually look like.

The project has another three years to go before it’s due to complete, but once done it will give Victoria – one of the busiest stations in the UK – the look and feel that it so deserves.

IMG_6415Tottenham Court Road

Following on from two Women in Safety & Health site visits to see the Bond Street Station Upgrade and the Victoria Station Upgrade, 12 women from varying professions descended on one of the busiest shopping streets in Europe to see how the Tube station upgrade was developing.

With the introduction of Crossrail through central London in 2018, demand at Tottenham Court Road Station is expected to increase by at least 30 per cent.

A presentation led us through the £1bn being invested into a new Crossrail station and Tube station that will opened at the end of 2016.

The changes that will be introduced at the Tube station include:

  •  A new, larger ticket hall
  • New entrances and a public plaza outside the Centre Point Tower
  • Additional escalators
  • Additional access to the Northern and Central line platforms
  • Step-free access from street to platform

With the connection to Crossrail a new western ticket hall is being built as well as new platforms and escalators and a lift to link the Tube station with Crossrail.

The logistics for this project have been huge, traffic diversions are in place and the Central line trains aren’t stopping at the station until December this year.

Of the three station upgrades we’ve been to see, Tottenham Court Road is the furthest along in terms of development – one of the ticket halls is already up and running and the civils side of the project is well under way.

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The iconic Paolozzi mosaics at Tottenham Court Road Station

Tottenham Court Road faces many of the same challenges as Victoria and Bond Street in that the refurbishment of the station is being done while the current station is live – in some places only a locked door separates the general public from the refurbishments.

Following the presentation we were divided into two groups of six and lead down the 125 stairs into the tunnels where tunnels are being grouted and tiled ready for people to walk through at the end of 2016.

We were able to see first hand the preservation of the iconic 1984 Paolozzi mosaics, which are an essential part of the culture of the station and London Underground’s heritage.

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The 18-metre high glass frame over the new station entrance

We wandered the maze of tunnels ending up at the bottom of escalators in the process of being refurbished and eventually making our way back up the stairs to look at the civils project taking place outside Centre Point.

Work has already started here to build the ‘South Plaza’ entrance – an 18-metre high glass-paneled frame – which will provide access to the new ticket hall and entrance to the Central and Northern lines, and will eventually connect up to Crossrail.

This glass structure towers over – what is at the moment – a huge hole in the ground, where construction workers and engineers are busy creating what will eventually connect passageways with the Central line.

Following a look at the civils project we went down into the recently upgraded station, which many of us had arrived in that day to see the finished product of part of the station upgrade. If that part is anything to go by, Tottenham Court Road Tube station will look and feel like a completely refreshed, new station with the capacity to cope with the demand such a busy shopping street commands.

Prior to visiting the Victoria Station Upgrade and Tottenham Court Road Tube Station Upgrade we also visited Bond Street Station Upgrade.

Roz-Black-and-White

Roz Sanderson is digital editor for SHP online and Health and Safety Week, and organises the Women in Safety and Health forum.

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