Examination of Witnesses (Questions 2720
- 2739)
2720. I will come back to whether you can use
the building, if I may, when we go through the options. Then moving
around the site you have relatively small things like the fan
and the ladder bay, but we probably do not need to worry about
those too much. But you need to have a generator, fuel for the
generator and a compressor, do you not?
(Mr Morton) Yes, you do.
2721. None of those, as it were, are optional
extras. Then up here we come to the cement silo and the washout
skip. Because of the adit, the chamber and the shaft downstairs—I
will call it downstairs—in the underground part of the station,
there is a very considerable amount of concrete that needs to
be poured via this shaft to construct those underground works,
is there not?
(Mr Morton) Right.
2722. So we have to have space for the cement
silo and washout skip for that part of the construction.
(Mr Morton) That is the
most economic way of doing it but it could be done with pumped
concrete being delivered to the site.
2723. What would be the cost implications of
that?
(Mr Morton) Significant.
2724. I am also instructed by Mr Berryman that
to do a pumped concrete solution with spray concrete lining is
technically extremely difficult; I do not know whether that falls
within your expertise?
(Mr Morton) It is horses
for courses; some systems work in some instances and others work
in others. You could use either system.
2725. If you were going to construct this by
methods of piling rather than segmented shaft then also on that
site we would need the piling rig and the reinforcement cage and
the piles themselves; yes? They are not shown on this plan because
we were not proposing to do it that way, but you would need to
find space for those as well, would you not?
(Mr Morton) Unless they
are delivered as required, and I see that you have space for storing
the segments, which could be part of that system.
2726. You could take up some of the segment
space but the reinforcement cages and the piles would take up
considerably more space that that, would they not, because they
are so big?
(Mr Morton) Not necessarily
so, no; as I said, you could have these delivered to the site
as work progressed, as you wanted them.
2727. There is a phrase for it, "just in
time" delivery, which has the necessary risk and cost consequences,
does it not, because if the just in time lorry gets stuck in a
traffic jam on Farringdon Road then you are in real trouble with
your construction programme.
(Mr Morton) Yes.
2728. So there are risk and cost consequences
of not having space on site for those items, is that right?
(Mr Morton) One is working
on a constricted site and one has to take account of those in
considering the solutions to the problem.
2729. But there is a balance to be struck: yes,
we are working on a constricted site, but if you make it even
more constricted then that has risk and cost consequences, does
it not?
(Mr Morton) But you have
saved a devil of a lot of money by leaving the building there.
2730. Can we just stick to what we need? The
other thing that is not on here is that, going back to the underground
works, it would be necessary to store on the site the tunnel segments
that will be used underground to construct the adits.
(Mr Morton) They will come
at a later date when the shaft is constructed and the system is
to move over the shaft and use that for storage space at that
time, and there is space for dropping materials down through it.
2731. So that is the solution you propose to
that, is it?
(Mr Morton) No, that is
actually suggested in the Mott MacDonald report.
2732. Can we turn to your plan, tab 7? You have
not shown on this plan a number of the items that we have just
been through, have you? So you do not, for instance, have anywhere
to put the spoil that is thrown out by the piling? You do not
have anywhere to load lorries, you do not have the delivery space.
You simply have not done it on this plan, have you?
(Mr Morton) We have not
shown it on the plan because taking Scanmoor to the site and then
looking at the site and considering the proposals, they thought
that they had worked on much more constricted sites than this.
2733. But they are not here to give evidence,
are they?
(Mr Morton) No, they are
not.
2734. And they have not produced any plan of
how they would do it, have they?
(Mr Morton) No. It is the
first time I have seen the previous plan presented.
2735. You have seen the Mott MacDonald report
since last Friday, have you not?
(Mr Morton) Yes, I have.
2736. And we have not seen a single thing of
yours since 9.30 this morning, so let us put that in context.
Can I ask you to have a look at another plan we have prepared,
which is P38? This is our best stab at what would happen if you
retained the building. The grey is number 38. The shaft has been
moved to the east on this to take advantage of the Fox and Knot
Street two metres.
(Mr Morton) Right.
2737. So we are, as it were, maximising our
use of the site, and what we have done is laid out the things
from the previous plan that we have agreed we need on the site,
and on the right hand side you can see those items which we have
not been able to fit on. Cross out, if you would, the segments
because that is a mistake there, and if I can ask the Committee
to cross it out—it was an oversight. But the other items,
the crane, the waste skip, the fuel generator and the washout
skip, we simply have not been able to fit on to that site.
(Mr Morton) Suddenly mysteriously
at first floor level a storage structure comes out of it, stores
at first floor level, and on the previous plan that you showed
there was no suggestion of stores at first floor level, and you
seem to have a lot more items going on to site on the second plan
than you do on the first.
2738. I do not think that is right, Mr Morton.
What we have tried to do is to make the best possible use of the
site in the second plan, retaining the building, so we have put
the stores at the first floor level because that makes the most
efficient use of the site. We have done it that way so that we
can bring the lorries in underneath. I do not think we have put
lots of extra bits of plant on to the second plan, but what we
have shown is that there is simply nowhere to put those other
items. That makes it very difficult to construct the shaft from
this location, does it not?
(Mr Morton) I think the
way you have shown this on the two plans is confusing, because
if you take all the coloured items on the first plan that you
showed and impose those on this site again and you have the first
floor stores, they all seem to go in.
2739. No, that is not right, with respect Mr
Morton. If you look in the top right hand corner we have the crane,
the waste skip, the fuel tank, the generator and washout skip
that we simply cannot get on the site.
(Mr Morton) Where you have
the green shaded area it says stores at first floor level, where
are those stores shown on the previous plan?
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