Services used on this project:
Project – The Farringdon Crossrail station project would see a new 6 storey building as the principal structure and a series of tunnels between Farringdon and Barbican Underground stations / interchanges. With an overall project cost of £239m, Crossrail linked Farringdon to Canary Wharf, Abbey Wood, Stratford, and Shenfield in the east with Paddington, Heathrow and Reading in the west and is predicted to become one of the busiest stations within London, estimated to be used by 150,000 passengers a day.
Solution – Every aspect of this project would be highly complex; the traffic management solution was no different. It was recognised in the early stages of the project that a part closure of Farringdon road would be the only feasible option for managing the safe installation of the new watermain and construction of the principal station building. The half closure would also mitigate issues around traffic flow whilst maintaining safety zones for the site teams and members of the public. The half closure was supported with an addition 10 full road closures, associated traffic management apparatus and 2000m of Mass Barrier.
The traffic management solution was maintained 24/7 by a team of RTS operatives overseen by a manager and two supervisors. A further team of 12 additional operatives were brought in each Friday evening to facilitate the movement of a 500-ton mobile crane to and from site. Over the course of the project, RTS earned the respect of BFK, The City of London Authority and members of the public. This resulted in RTS providing traffic management solutions with a further 10 contractors associated with this project. It is fair to say that RTS were the supplier of choice.
Feedback – The feedback RTS received throughout the project was extremely positive. Over the course of the project our operations team, lead by Pat Knight, forged longstanding relationships with key members of the joint venture. Many of these contractors still rely on the expertise that the RTS provide, having subsequently requested support on many other projects.