Examination of Witnesses (Questions 1480
- 1499)
1480. Mr Elvin: Sir, I know you were
expecting to see Mr Laurence on his feet. The only reason I am
here is that I understand one of the documents that the Committee
requested from us was circulated and I had not realised it had
been, which is what I am going to call A20.
1481. Sir Peter Soulsby: It does not
need to be A20. It already has a number at the top, which is 109
and that is how we will note it.[4]
1482. Mr Elvin: Sir, can I just introduce
it? It is the plan that was produced and that Mr Hopkins requested
two days ago. It is our version of the walk times from the platform
rather than from the ticket halls. This gives you two sets of
concentric circles in blue of the five and 10 minute walk times
from Liverpool Street coming from the platform and in red the
five and 10 minute walk times from Moorgate coming from the Crossrail
platform.
1483. Sir Peter Soulsby: And this is
from the platform centre?
1484. Mr Elvin: I think it is from the
appropriate ends of the Crossrail platform. I do not think it
is from the centre. I think it is from the points at each end
of the platform.
1485. Sir Peter Soulsby: I cannot recall
what was said. Were we going to see some figures arising from
applying this?
1486. Mr Elvin: The reason I was surprised
to find it circulated is that I was only going to circulate it
when the figures had come as well.
1487. Sir Peter Soulsby: I note that
it does say on the bottom "Page 1 of 3" so it may be
that pages 2 and 3 are the ones that we are waiting for. Mr Laurence?
1488. Mr Laurence: I will call Mr Chapman.
Mr Tim Chapman, sworn
Examined by Mr Laurence
1489. Are you Tim Chapman and a professional
civil engineer specialised in geotechnical engineering?
(Mr Chapman) I am.
1490. Would you tell the Committee briefly of
your relevant experience for the purposes of the evidence you
are intending to give today?
(Mr Chapman) Certainly. I have degrees in civil
engineering and soil mechanics. Most of my career has been focused
on major buildings in the London area, designing foundations,
deep basements and assessing the effects of new buildings on existing
tunnels and new tunnels on existing buildings. I have chartered
engineer status in both the UK and Ireland and am a Fellow of
the Institution of Civil Engineers. Additionally I am a member
of the British Geotechnical Association, the British Tunnelling
Society, the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, the Geotechnical
Society of Ireland and the International Society for Soil Mechanics
and Geotechnical Engineering. I have written more than 20 refereed
papers, a book on retaining wall design and am frequently invited
to speak on geotechnical matters to professional audiences.
1491. You have been employed by Arup since September
1987 and are now a director of that company.
(Mr Chapman) Correct.
1492. Tell the Committee something of your knowledge
of basements, substructures and things of that kind.
(Mr Chapman) Throughout my career I have worked
on deep basements and substructures for major buildings, mainly
in London but also in a number of overseas locations. I have been
responsible for the foundations and basements of the Royal Opera
House, the Swiss Re tower and large buildings at Canary Wharf
as well as many others. I have a lot of experience assessing the
effects of new buildings on tunnels and new tunnels on buildings,
including sometimes working for the infrastructure protection
team who safeguard the Victoria, Bakerloo and Central Lines. I
should say "I" am not just me; I am giving evidence
on behalf of a team of people in Arup who have got major experience
of designing facilities for LUL and other standards for stations
including Kings Cross, Victoria and those connected with the Channel
Tunnel Rail Link and other Underground station locations in the
UK and also internationally.
1493. It is right, is it not, that you have
had some involvement over the years with the Crossrail scheme
itself?
(Mr Chapman) Correct. In 1992 I was seconded
into the Crossrail project team as one of the key staff for the
execution and interpretation of the central area site investigation,
which included bore holes carried out in the area around Liverpool
Street. In 1993 for the previous scheme I was lead geotechnical
designer for the scheme's two ticket hall boxes at Tottenham Court
Road and since then I have liaised several times with the Crossrail
team about new building developments over its route.
1494. Tell the Committee if you would what Arup
was employed by the British Land Company plc to advise about.
(Mr Chapman) British Land initially, in February
2005, engaged us to provide technical advice in relation to their
petition on the Crossrail Bill for their affected properties.
I have directed Arup's work under this commission. More recently
British Land also engaged Steer Davies Gleave's Mr Spencer to
advise on transport modelling issues. He explained his belief
about what was happening to the passengers around Liverpool Street
Station and we were then asked to assist in coming up with solutions
that could help mitigate the problems. One of the suggestions
at that time was that a bigger ticket hall was not possible. Summarise
if you would what the intention and purpose of the evidence you
are about to give to the Committee is.
(Mr Chapman) The intention of what I am about
to say is to demonstrate that creating increased capacity to deal
with the extra passenger flows predicted for the eastern end of
Liverpool Street Station is feasible at likely affordable cost.
Two options exist: one that creates a new facility, the Eldon
Street ticket hall, which would enable Crossrail passengers destined
for the street to do so much more quickly than under the current
scheme and avoid a conflict with interchanging passengers in the
existing station. The second one is one that was suggested by
the Promoter which massively expands the existing ticket hall
B where the congestion would otherwise occur. Those have been
termed options 1 and 6, ironically based on our discussions with
the Promoter. Option 1 is the Eldon Street scheme and option 6
is the massively expanded ticket hall B.
1495. Options 2, 3, 4 and 5 are not going to
be the subject of any evidence in detail by you today but there
have been other options under discussion in the last few months,
have there not, which means that you have not chosen the number
6 by accident for the massively enhanced ticket hall scheme?
(Mr Chapman) No. We had a meeting with the
Promoters before Christmas where we went through the options and
our suggestion, the Eldon Street scheme, was option 1 and the
Promoter at that stage indicated that there were some other options
which were options 2 to 5, all of which had a number of issues
connected with them which meant that they were less favourable
and then Richard Davies, who is the station designer for Liverpool
Street, who had worked for London Underground on the station,
suggested option 6 and both sides thought that option 6 was an
excellent idea and could be made to work.
1496. I circulated at a very early stage of
these proceedings a bundle, sir, which, if you remember, included
Mr Weiss's appendix A and then there were two figures, A and B,
together with figures 1 to 6. If you cannot easily put your hand
on those maybe I could ask for you to be provided with spare copies.
(Mr Chapman) It would be helpful, Mr Laurence,
for figures 1 to 6 to be made available because I will be using
them in my presentation.
1497. In addition, Mr Chapman, I have as a separate
document some tables, 1, 2 and 3. Are those separately available
to be handed to the Committee?
(Mr Chapman) They are.
1498. Perhaps we could have figure 1 on the
screen.
(Mr Chapman) I can use figure A.
1499. Sir Peter Soulsby: For clarity I will
number this A20. That is the evidence of Mr Tim Chapman.[5]5
4 Crossrail Ref: P18, Amended City of London Plan to
show 5 and 10 minutes walk time from proposed Liverpool St and
Moorgate Crossrail platforms. (LONDLB-2604-109) Back
5
5 Committee Ref: A20, Crossrail at Liverpool Street Station-Current
Crossrail Proposals (SCN-20060126-004). Back
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