Transport secretary to fire starting gun on £1.3bn scheme today
Construction of HS2’s Old Oak Common station will officially get underway today with transport secretary Grant Shapps due to fire the starting gun this afternoon.
Enabling works have been carried out by the Costain/Skanska joint venture which has cleared the west London site of its former rail depot sheds and outbuildings.
The Balfour Beatty/Vinci/Systra (BBVS) team tasked with building the station, which has a price tag of £1.3bn, will start work constructing a 1.8km long underground diaphragm wall around what will become the station’s ‘underground box’, where six HS2 platforms will sit.
Pilling rigs will also install 160 reinforced concrete columns inside the wall to help form the box and support the structure.
Once complete, the soc-called ‘super-hub’ station, which is designed by WSP and Wilkinson Eyre, will have 14 new platforms – six for HS2, four for Crossrail and four more for mainline services to Wales and the west.
Following the first phase of construction to create the 750,000m3 box, work on the eight overground platforms will begin. Over 1,600 concrete piles will be installed into the ground on which the station superstructure and overground platforms will sit.
Over 2,300 jobs will be supported on the site at peak construction, and over 250 apprenticeships will be created. There is also a commitment to recruiting local candidates of all ages and backgrounds for the project.
With over 250,000 passengers using the station every day, Old Oak Common will become one of the country’s busiest stations.
Plans to transform the wider area around the station are being led by the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation.
Old Oak Common construction facts and figures
- 73,000 tonnes of steel
- 13,000 square metres of glass
- 2,720 square metres of solar panels on the roof
- 53 lifts and 44 escalators
- 550 cycle spaces
- 10,000 energy efficient LED light bulbs
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