KINGS CROSS BRIDGE REMOVAL COMPLETED AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

Thursday 8 Jan 2009

KINGS CROSS BRIDGE REMOVAL COMPLETED AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

Region & Route:: | Eastern

Work to remove the footbridge in King's Cross station was completed ahead of schedule during the Christmas period marking a significant milestone in the multimillion pound redevelopment of the station.

Workers began the process to remove the structure minutes after the last train service left the station on Christmas Eve and worked through the night and into Christmas Day so that normal service could be restored when the station re-opened following Boxing Day.

The Christmas work required:

One of the largest rail-mounted cranes in the country
Six rail locomotives
Fifteen rail wagons
158 staff on site, working a total of 2540 hours
Six existing beams to be removed from columns, weighing 53 tonnes in total
Overhead electrification removed and then replaced using five on-track access machines

Time-lapse video footage (see attached file) shows the last evening services leaving the station before one of the largest rail-mounted cranes in the country is brought in to begin the mammouth task. The bridge is then removed piece by piece and loaded into wagons, with passengers shown returning to the station on the morning of Saturday, 27 December 2008.

The Grade 1 listed structure will be placed into storage and eventually re-housed. By 2013, passengers will be experiencing a completely rejuvenated King's Cross station with more capacity, a concourse with three times more space and an additional platform for extra services.

Following completion of the new platform at the York Way side of the station, a new footbridge will be installed with lifts and escalators serving all platforms from 1 to 8. The old footbridge provided access from platform 1 direct to platform 8, missing out platforms 2 to 7 entirely.

Notes to editors

The majority of the station redevelopment will be completed by 2012 in time for the Olympics with the transformation complete by 2013. Network Rail is investing over £400m in redeveloping King’s Cross station. Once completed, 50million passengers will use the new station each year – 10million more than today. An additional platform, increasing reliability and capacity at the station will be built The new station will include integrated transport links with international and domestic services from St Pancras and the London Underground The Grade 1 listed façade will be restored to its former glory by demolishing the current single-storey extension to the station A new open piazza in front of the station, larger than Leicester Square, will be created

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