01.11.06
Lighting the high-speed rail link
Bob Bohannon, general manager of Sill Lighting, explains the challenges faced in meeting the lighting requirements on the CTRL project
As the first new railway in England for over sixty years, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), which in its second phase provides a shorter route at high speed from Southfleet in north Kent through to London’s new destination station, St. Pancras is nearing completion. By any measure it’s a massive construction project with miles of cuttings, viaducts and tunnelling to take the line to a re-developed St Pancras station. On its way, two completely new intermediate stations have been created at Ebbsfleet and at Stratford International.
For Sill Lighting, the earliest involvement was in the re-lighting of the magnificent 1868 Victorian train shed designed and engineered by William Henry Barlow, a spectacular structure 213m long, 74m wide the widest in the world for 30 years. Sill was originally approached in 2000 for assistance in developing the right lighting solution and after long hours by the design team, Sill was asked to light the concourse areas and the St Pancras clock from locations in the train shed up to nearly 30m high.
In all, there are around 200 metal halide Sill 022 projectors performing this function, of which 75% are 400W, and 25% 250W, all arranged at different heights across the span of the glazed gothic roof structure. In order to meet the requirements for illuminance, uniformity and glare, a special reflector and anti-glare system were designed. Sill’s 3D computer model of the building allowed this to be rigorously tested prior to installation. There are also over 200 Sill 455 asymmetric projectors washing light down the brick arches of the flank walls and picking out the highly decorative frieze at the top of each arch.
It was soon obvious that installation of the luminaires prior to the dismantling of the construction crash deck would save considerable time and money. This meant that the luminaries were needed much faster than the normal delivery period, achieved by Sill with ease.
Given the architectural heritage of the Grade I-listed Barlow shed, it was important that a company like Sill, with its experience in this field, was selected for its ability in both functional and feature lighting. Emcor Rail’s Peter Lawrence, MEP design manager for Corber, comments:
“We were confident to use Sill from previous experience of working with them on the Jubilee Line and the company was very helpful in providing lighting design calculations and modelling so as to meet the performance and aesthetic requirements – in fact Sill exceeded expectations on glare control.”
“Being a listed building, English Heritage has been heavily involved in the project, and it was pleased that Sill was chosen for the re-lighting of this historic building.”
Two years later, in 2002, Sill commenced working with Rail Link Engineering with lighting schemes for the Stratford and Ebbsfleet intermediate stations. The two stations are very similar in layout and design with covered platforms, canopies and open sections.
The scheme involves 150W metal halide Sill 453 series projectors mounted on columns in the open section, and mounted high on the station columns for the covered area. For the canopies there are 70W versions of the same projector mounted at a lower height of 2.5 metres on the steelwork of the canopy itself. In all there are over 300 projectors used for each station, all having built-in 40W tungsten halogen emergency lamps. Sill’s original lighting scheme calculations were later modified to provide a minimum 125 lux for the covered and open platforms alike and 0.5 uniformity throughout, this bettering the required specification.
Jim Finn, electrical installation manager for Emcor, explains: “As well as providing the correct illumination for pedestrians on the platforms, we needed to ensure that we had luminaires with the right cut-off angle so there was no danger of any glare to on-coming train drivers. This was achieved by Sill’s scheme from the outset and we chose the company as it presented the best design solution and delivery schedule for the equipment. We are very pleased with the final outcome and the service provided with special components for the project.
The completion of the lighting for this Phase 2 high speed rail link for CTRL adds to the range of rail projects using Sill luminaires. This range including Paddington, Heathrow Express, Manchester Gateway, London Bridge, Cannon Street, Heron Quays DLR plus several of the stations on the Jubilee Line extension.
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