Laing O’Rourke is sufficiently close to completing construction of Tottenham Court Road Crossrail station in London for final commissioning activities to start, three years after the Elizabeth Line was originally due to open.
The station has reached the T-12 landmark, which means it is now considered to be 12 weeks away from being ready for handover to Transport for London.
Work at the station will now focus on the testing and commissioning of systems ahead of the Elizabeth line opening. The railway is on track to open in the first half of 2022.
Custom House was the first of the new Elizabeth line stations to be handed over to TfL last year and Farringdon station also reached its T-12 landmark just before Christmas and is expected to be handed over to TfL next month.
Tottenham Court Road station’s Elizabeth Line main entrance is on Dean Street with the Elizabeth line station integrated with the expanded and upgraded London Underground station. Construction has started on commercial developments above and around the new station entrances, which will include new retail and office space on Oxford Street.
Declan Mcgeeney, director of UK infrastructure at Laing O’Rourke, said: “This is a significant achievement by our construction team and I thank them for their commitment and hard work.
“The station has created some interesting engineering challenges to solve, including constructing the line’s only curved platform for the routeway to avoid the foundations of Centre Point. We’ve worked in close partnership with Crossrail and London Underground to create a state-of-the-art station and are proud to be part of the team delivering a world-class piece of infrastructure that will improve the journeys of millions of people for many years to come.”
Mark Wild, Crossrail chief executive, said: “This is an incredibly important moment for the team at Tottenham Court Road station and for the Crossrail project as a whole and is another important step for us on the journey to opening the Elizabeth line.
“Tottenham Court Road is an iconic location and a part of London that everyone in the city will be incredibly familiar with. Everyone who has worked on this magnificent new station can be incredibly proud of the contribution they have made to the lives of Londoners and the look of the city. I hope our new station will continue to delight everyone using it for generations to come.”
Kim Kapur, London Underground’s head of station integration, said: “With Tottenham Court Road station approaching transfer it shows real progress in getting this railway integrated with our London Underground stations before they become part of our operational network.
“This is great news and follows on from Farringdon station, which reached the milestone at the end of last year. When the Elizabeth line opens, this large new station with two modern, spacious ticket halls will be a crucial gateway into central London providing a vital link with the Central and Northern lines.”
