Crossrail Ltd (CRL) has chosen an innovative design by an Atkins/Arup/Allies and Morrison team which will see the only new overground Crossrail station largely prefabricated off-site.
The major elements of the new Custom House station will be transported to site and assembled at the location similar to the way a meccano set is built. The process will save time and cost, and reduce the project’s carbon footprint.
The Custom House station in East London will be unique and the design and build will bring some singular challenges.The project must be completed without causing major disruption to the existing Docklands Light Railway’s (DLR) Custom House station and the adjoining Excel Centre, London’s most modern conference venue (hosting up to 50,000 visitors per day).
According to Atkins’ programme delivery director, Simon Layzell, “The new station will act as a catalyst for regeneration in the area but it is an incredibly complicated site and we needed an elegant and efficient design and engineering solution to meet the project requirements.
“By maximising the use of off-site fabrication techniques we will be able to guarantee quality before assembly begins and also significantly reduce the time needed to complete the build. Also, because you are minimising the amount of material coming to site you make it a far more carbon critical design.”
The prefabricated elements include a state of the art transparent ETFE roof similar to that used at the Eden Project in Cornwall, precast concrete sections, and modular ticketing and retail units.
Duncan Wilkinson, Arup framework director, said, “This will be a challenging station, but with the offsite pre-fabrication proposals it should set a benchmark in both cost and quality for other Crossrail overground station works.”
The design will mean building the new Crossrail platforms alongside the existing DLR station and creating a new overhead concourse that will serve both sets of lines. Access to the new station will be on the north side of Victoria Dock Road via an elevated entrance served by escalators and lifts. The station will be fully accessible.
The station will feature new retail facilities and will seamlessly link into the Excel Centre to provide a smooth transition for visitors. The design has also been conceived as flexible enough to allow for future development.
The Atkins/Arup/Allies and Morrison project team will be providing civil, structural building services engineering, cost consultancy (Faithful+Gould), environmental consultancy, transport planning, architectural services, and rail communications systems.