East London line extension
In the second phase of the project, on 9 December 2012, a branch was connected to the South London Line enabling services to run to Clapham Junction.
The northern extension runs from Whitechapel to Highbury & Islington, connecting with the North London Line; this section became operational as far as Dalston Junction in late May 2010, and to Highbury & Islington on 28 February 2011, with trains every five minutes on the central section between Dalston Junction and Surrey Quays.
[1] The southern extension of phase one from New Cross Gate to Crystal Palace and West Croydon was completed simultaneously with that to Dalston in 2010, and a full service began in May 2010.
[2] The northern extension makes use of disused trackbeds on the Kingsland Viaduct that formerly carried the North London Railway branch to Broad Street station, which was closed to the national rail system in 1986.
[4] The existing section of line was completely overhauled; all of the tracks were replaced and signalling was upgraded to Network Rail standards.
[6][7] After a period of uncertainty, funding for this phase was announced in February 2009 with a prospective completion date of May 2012, in time for the start of the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, which were held in London in July 2012.
[7] In addition, a disused staircase at Platform 2 was brought back into use and a new lift was installed to improve access from the newly refurbished Grant Road entrance.
In October 2006, TfL announced the two companies had been awarded a £363 million contract to carry out the work, beating a rival consortium made up of Laing O'Rourke, AMEC Spie and Vinci.
The contract awarded bonuses to the contractors if they completed work ahead of schedule but penalised them up to £50,000 a day for late delivery.
The seven-year, £80 million contract, which was announced in February 2009, required Carillion to provide TfL with management, technical resources, plant, equipment and labour.
[20] Bombardier supplied the line's rolling stock as part of a £259 million contract to provide trains for the London Overground network.
[30] The extension project was proposed several times during the 1990s but was repeatedly rejected or postponed owing to a lack of government support and insufficient financing.
In November 1990, Transport Secretary Cecil Parkinson rejected a proposed parliamentary bill that would have authorised the project[31] and two years later the extension plans were postponed indefinitely owing to cutbacks in Tube funding.
[32] Another proposal was made in 1993 to extend the line from Whitechapel to Dalston Junction, involving the construction of new stations at Bishopsgate, Hoxton and Haggerston,[33][34] and received the support of a public inquiry in 1994.
However, it was held up when it came to light that the Grade II listed 19th-century Braithwaite arches in the former Bishopsgate Goods Yard were to be demolished as part of the project.
[citation needed] Preparatory work by Taylor Woodrow began in June 2005 and continued through to the end of 2006, involving the replacement and refurbishment of 22 bridges along the Kingsland Viaduct.
[44] On 9 June 2006, Shoreditch underground station closed permanently to facilitate work on the extension, with services from Whitechapel being replaced by buses.
[45] The rest of the East London line closed on 22 December 2007, with rail replacement buses linking the stations north and south of the Thames (but not crossing the river due to height restrictions in the Rotherhithe Tunnel).
The bridge was manufactured to a tied arch or bowstring design in Chepstow by engineering firm Fairfield Mabey, and was lowered into place by the UK's biggest mobile crane, weighing 1,200 tonnes.
Debris fell onto the tracks, forcing the suspension of services in and out of Liverpool Street station until the following day and causing major disruption to commuters.
