BE Magazine Volume 5, Issue 2 - (Page 29) CIVIL BE Award Winner Staying on Track 3D visualization keeps East London Line Project on schedule T he East London Line is part of the London Underground Network and has been operating in various guises since 1869. The line features the world’s first underwater tunnel, bored PROJECT East London Line Project OVERVIEW Organization Mott MacDonald Ltd BE Awards Category Civil Visualization and Simulation Project Objective Develop a 3D model to accelerate the threading of a 21st century railway through 19th century infrastructure the tunnels of the existing East London Line, and the southern extension is 3.5 kilometers in length. The northern extension route from Dalston south to Shoreditch will use the Victorian brick arch Kingsland Viaduct, a railway viaduct that was abandoned in the 1980s. From there, the new line will pass over the former Bishopsgate Goods Yard on a new concrete viaduct before ramping down to connect into the existing East London Line at Valance Road. From the Valance Road portal, the railway will use existing East London Line tunnels. The track and the rest of the railway infrastructure, however, will be replaced throughout the length of the central section, and the stations will be remodeled. A new facility at New Cross Gate will handle storage, maintenance, and cleaning for the fleet of trains. The facility will provide room to house 20 four-car units and service four units at a time from either of the East or North London Lines. Four stations will be built on the northern extension to supplement the six at the central section and the two at the end of the southern extension. All told, the project requires 10 new major structures and two dozen minor structures. The central section includes 36 new point ends along the route with 16 more within the storage facility. Additionally, more than 140 signals will be installed along the length of the railway. Getting more from the model beneath the Thames River between 1825 and 1841. The tunnel was relined and refurbished in the mid-1990s in anticipation of the East London Line upgrade. The $2.75 billion East London Line Project will connect Highbury and Islington Station on the North London Line with the Network Rail infrastructure in South London. The 12-kilometer project is expected to trigger economic revitalization in areas that are now poorly served by rail. Mott MacDonald, the technical advisor to Transport for London on the East London Line Project, conducted the preliminary design for the project. Like the trains that will eventually run along its tracks, a railway improvement project is governed by exacting timetables. Phase 1 of the project encompasses the infrastructure to extend the railway north to Dalston Junction Station along with a connection to the Network Rail infrastructure at New Cross Gate. This phase is scheduled for completion in 2010, in time for the 2012 Olympics in London. Phase 1 is divided into three sections: northern, central, and southern. Each section presents distinct engineering challenges. For instance, the northern extension runs 4 kilometers, 3 kilometers of which will use structures abandoned in the 1980s. The v Mott MacDonald used visualization to resolve design issues and move forward into detail design with increased confidence in the validity of the designs central section is 3.75 kilometers in length, using Volume 5, Issue 2 | BE MAGAZINE In the past, signal positioning on a new railway was a matter of experience on the part of the designers involved. Today, there are solutions available that enable designers to build on that experience and eliminate possible risks. “Because roughly half of the infrastructure for the East London Line Project does not yet exist, Mott MacDonald used visualization to resolve design issues and move forward into detail 29
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