Rail Industry Focus

Re-building Blackfriars

Blackfriars Communications Manager David Wilson talks RTM through the developments that have so far taken place at the station and the work still to be done.

The countdown to completion for Blackfriars began in December last year when the first 12-carriage trains began calling at the station. Although only a few of these longer trains have started running, the capacity is in place, prepared for new rolling stock the DfT is currently procuring.

David Wilson, Network Rail’s communications manager for the station project, told RTM: “Essentially it’s all about massively increasing capacity on the Thameslink route between Bedford and Brighton, through central London.”

This will be achieved with longer trains, increased from eight carriages to twelve, as well as longer platforms, upgraded signalling systems and track. To run more frequent services, Blackfriars has increased the number of trains it can serve per hour from eight to 15. Following the completion of remodelling at London Bridge in 2018, this will increase to 24 trains per hour.

On December 12, the new southern entrance to the station was opened, the result of a complicated engineering job that makes Blackfriars the only station to span the Thames. The second entrance transformed an exclusively north bank station, used by commuters heading into the city, to one which offers the additional option to visit the many art and cultural institutions around the South Bank.

The engineering and management challenges the project presented included the complexities of coordinating thousands of people, materials and trains as work took place in a very restricted area.

As Wilson said: “There’s no space. You’re stuck in the middle of central London, with the River Thames on one side and St Paul’s cathedral on the other; there’s no room to play with. We had to essentially rebuild the station over the rail bridge.”

That involved completely stripping back the bridge to its foundations before rebuilding it wide and strong enough to build platforms upon. This took place while Underground trains continued to run on the District and Circle lines. To maintain construction, a huge metal cage was built around the London Underground line.

Blackfriars Underground station re-opened on February 20, following three years of closure whilst it was completely rebuilt.

Working in partnership

This all sounds incredibly complicated, and Wilson agreed: “It’s spectacularly difficult.”

But work was managed very successfully through closures at evenings and weekends, and one eight-week block where main line rail services did not stop at Blackfriars. To minimise the disruption construction could cause, the team used an innovative way of working. Essentially this involved “cutting the bridge in half down the middle”, to work on one side whilst trains continued to run on the other side, before switching over. A major challenge in itself, this work took place whilst around 300,000 people went through the site every day via road, rail and water. “There’s a huge amount of interface with the public and that’s something we have to be mindful of all the time,” Wilson acknowledged.

To manage the project, Network Rail worked in close cooperation with the City of London and Southwark councils, the Port of London Authority (PLA) and TfL, as well as train operators First Capital Connect and South Eastern. Wilson suggested that this partnership working would be something to try to replicate for future projects.

He said: “There’s a huge range of parties involved and partnership working has been the absolute key to that. We’re also taking a partnership approach with our contractor Balfour Beatty; we’re colocated with them in the same office right outside the project, so that really helps to share information and make sure we’re singing from the same hymn sheet.”

Different approach to delivery

Coordinating several different partners and methods of delivery is one way in which working practices have been modified to account for the difficult circumstances. Quickly realising that using only the road network for delivery of materials would be impractical, barges were employed on the river to transport around 14,000 tonnes of material to the site.

The central London location means there is very little space for storage, further complicating the delivery of materials. The boats were therefore loaded up further down the river, towards Canary Wharf, before they sailed to the bridge.

Network Rail worked with the PLA to close the river off at certain points, to allow easier access for the barges and the City of London ensured that parts of the pavement next to the bridge were restricted for Blackfriars, giving the project team better access to the site.

Wilson said: “It’s a big partnership but it has borne dividends for everybody because it’s seen more use of the river – which the PLA are very happy with – and it’s taken pressure off the road network, which Southwark council and the City of London council are also very happy with.”

Slip and slide

In terms of innovation, Blackfriars is a beacon of technological advances and new working practices. The key example of this is obviously the solar panels installed on the roof of the station; the largest array of solar panels in London, which will generate 50% of the station’s power. It is the world’s largest solar bridge. Other environmental measures include using mirrored pipes to collect light from the sun and carry it into the darker, covered parts of the station to reduce the amount of electricity needed for the whole station.

The south entrance of the station is a good example of some of the construction challenges Network Rail has faced and solved, Wilson explained. Building on a bridge created several considerations for the project, such as the need to install slip-joints to ensure the bridge could move independently from the station itself.

Additionally, the movement of the bridge, affected by the river and tides meant that the structure would expand and contract. However, the track itself has only a very small tolerance in which to move. A specially designed tracktray was therefore constructed under the ballast to keep the track still and allow trains to continue running over it.

The next key date in the project’s timeline is May 19, when all work will be complete at the station. Although open to the public since December, construction has been ongoing around the station. This date will also mark the opening of two additional bay platforms for the national rail station, bringing the total number to four.

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