Examination of Witnesses (Questions 3880
- 3899)
3880. Sir Peter Soulsby: That is clear
and very helpful. Mr Elvin, are you ready?
Mr Keith Berryman, Sworn
Examined by Mr Elvin
3881. Mr Elvin: You are Keith Berryman,
you are Managing Director (Projects) of Cross London Rail Links
Limited. You are a civil engineer with extensive experience of
planning, design and construction of major railway projects both
in the UK and abroad, and the projects that you have been involved
in include the Hong Kong Mass Transit and the Jubilee Line Extension?
(Mr Berryman) That is correct.
3882. You were previously a Director of the
Strategic Rail Authority. You are a Fellow of the Institution
of Civil Engineers and a member of the Institution of Structural
Engineers?
(Mr Berryman) Yes, that is correct.
3883. Thank you. What I would like to deal with
with you, Mr Berryman, is the issue as to what is happening at
Smithfield and then particularly to come to look at the various
issues affecting Lindsey Street and the like. Can I just ask you
to explain first about the Crossrail proposals as they affect
the east end of Smithfield Market?
(Mr Berryman) Yes, I can certainly do that.
As Counsel has explained earlier, the construction at the east
end of Smithfield Market is to provide the eastern entrance to
Farringdon Station on the Crossrail system and to provide the
interchange between Farringdon Station of Crossrail and Barbican
Station of the Metropolitan and Circle Line. If we could look
at exhibit nine, that is the photo of the site you will be able
to see here the size of the site and you will see at the top corner,
the Fox and Knot Street worksite, which members of the Committee
took evidence on a couple of weeks ago, but the area that we are
talking about today is particularly the Lindsey Street site which
is on the corner of Lindsey Street and Long Lane and stretches
right across to Charterhouse Square and the site underneath the
Smithfield Market. Crossrail platforms at this level are approximately
30 metres underground and to get to them from the ticket hall
site, which is at the corner of Long Lane and Lindsey Street,
we need to go down with escalators to get below the levels of
the adjacent railway lines, that is the Thameslink lines and Metropolitan
and Circle Lines, pass under them, and then go down again to the
Crossrail lines, so the work required underneath the market consists
of constructing an escalator box which is below the market. Can
we have number 7, please. This is the plan which shows the works
there. You can see that there is a large shaft near the corner
of Lindsey Street and Long Lane with three little blobs in it.
That is a ventilation shaft. It will also be used for construction
purposes so that will be built, first of all, to allow access
to the tunnels down below. There is also another smaller shaft
between the Metropolitan line and the Thameslink lines which is
used for fire brigade access and MIP access, you can see it there,
and then of course there is the work on the other side of the
street at the Fox and Knot Street site. The escalator box, which
takes escalators down from the ticket hall level to an intermediate
level, is under the market and shown there. At the intermediate
level, which is above the Crossrail lines but below the Underground
and Thameslink lines, there is a passageway which takes us to
a location between Crossrail lines so we can get an escalator
down to them and the works which we are particularly interested
in today are those which are in Lindsey Street itself and underneath
the market obviously.
3884. Thank you and if we turn then to what
construction activities, focusing on the Lindsey Street area and
the eastern end of Smithfield, will be required for the construction
of Crossrail.
(Mr Berryman) Can I have number 5. All the
property on the Lindsey Street site will be demolished and a basement
will be followed on the site down to the existing track level
of Thameslink. It will be alongside Thameslink at the same level.
That basement will be formed using a secant piling system or something
similar, where piles will be driven and interlocked with each
other. From that basement, a shaft will be sunk which will ultimately
be a ventilation shaft but during the construction period will
be used for the excavation of the tunnels. The smaller shaft which
I mentioned earlier, the escalator shaft, will be constructed
to provide lifts and so on. The passage to the basement will be
constructed under Lindsey Street, if I could have number 8 up,
please. This is a cross-section showing how the works fit in with
the market, and you can see there the basement of the market which
currently has a mezzanine floor in this. That is not shown on
this cross-section. This is a cross-section looking south. You
can see Lindsey Street there with the building in the background,
there is Lindsey Street, and you can see the box which we intend
to construct underneath the market basement so that the roof of
the box ultimately forms the floor of the market basement and
then you can see the passage which will take passengers down to
the Crossrail lines. An interesting feature of Lindsey Street,
which is not made very clear here, is that Lindsey Street is itself
formed by a series of vaults. Originally there were sidings underneath
the market and they continued under Lindsey Street and that structure
is still in place so they are Victorian structures.
3885. They are Victorian vaults under Lindsey
Street?
(Mr Berryman) They are indeed.
3886. Do we know whether they stretch the whole
strength of Lindsey Street?
(Mr Berryman) They do not stretch the whole
length of Lindsey Street but they certainly cover the area we
are concerned with. Some of those vaults span over the existing
Thameslink lines and the Underground lines.
3887. Sir Peter Soulsby: That is the
fire alarm but let us carry on for now.
3888. Mr Elvin: We were talking about
the 19th century vaults.
(Mr Berryman) We were and you asked me that
immediately before the interruption. The vaults were built at
the same time as the market so I would say mid-19th century. Obviously
we assume that they are in reasonably good condition but we do
not really know that until we get in there and start work on them.
3889. Sir Peter Soulsby: I think we will
adjourn now and reconvene at 2.30 this afternoon.
After a short adjournment
3890. Sir Peter Soulsby: Mr Elvin, you
were on your feet.
3891. Mr Elvin: I was. Sir, hopefully
there will not be any division bells, fire alarms or anything
else in the next ten minutes, and we will see if we can finish
Mr Berryman.
3892. Mr Berryman, I think we tried twice to
deal with the Victorian vaults under Lindsey Street. As I understand
it, you need to investigate further the state in which those vaults
are at the moment.
(Mr Berryman) Indeed.
3893. Are there any other issues with regard
to Lindsey Street in respect of which there is uncertainty?
(Mr Berryman) The other issue about Lindsey
Street, which I think is kind of related to the vaults, is at
the northern end of the street where there is a bridge over the
existing underground lines the condition of which we are not entirely
sure about, and we will not be until we have actually demolished
the property and had a look at it.
3894. Mr Berryman, we were going to deal with
a whole number of issues about construction, percussive and non-percussive
methods and the like, but since the issues have narrowed so far
as your concerns, can I ask you to go to the questions relating
to Lindsey Street, both in terms of the control of dust measures,
firstly, in terms of the Lindsey Street site? And then we will
go on to the question of certainty over space for loading bays
and the like, and it is point eight in your aide memoir.
(Mr Berryman) Yes. I think the whole construction
process starts with the demolition of the existing buildings which
are on the Lindsey Street site, and of course that process has
a potential to generate dust. Normally these days in London buildings
are completely shrouded when they are demolished; a scaffold frame
is put up outside and sheeting is put over the scaffold frame
and water mist is applied inside the enclosure to create in that
way. So the dust which arises as a result of the demolition does
not become a problem, and we would be doing that in this case,
of course, as with all the other demolitions in Central London.
When the demolition is finished the construction work starts and
there are certain activities within the construction work which
can generate dust. There are particular issues which will be familiar
to anyone who has been near a construction site, where mud gets
on the road, it dries and it causes dust. We will have wheel washing
to prevent that happening, which again is normal practice in other
sites in Central London. We will also have high hoardings around
the site, about five metres high, which will prevent the overwhelming
majority of dust escaping from the site, if any is developed.
But I should emphasise that the best way of dealing with dust
is to deal with it at source so that in any dust-generating activities
the dust is suppressed by water jets or other appropriate means.
3895. In terms of the basement, the Promoter
has undertaken to seal the work site in the basement of Smithfield;
can you explain that, Mr Berryman?
(Mr Berryman) Yes. As you know, there is a
significant work site in the basement at Smithfield Market. What
we will be proposing is a floor to ceiling hoarding with tape
sealing the apertures between the walls and so on. It is a similar
technique to that which is used when buildings are cleared of
asbestos and it completely prevents the ingress of dust from the
site. We have an entrance into the site from the basement to allow
the preliminary underpinning work to be done, and that can be
provided either with fans or with an air lock, if that is appropriate,
to prevent dust passing out from the basement where we are working
into the rest of the building. Also any holes in the floor of
the market, which communicate between the market itself and the
basement, will be sealed up with tape in the same way. This is
a well-established technique which is used on many sites.
3896. Dr Ireland will be dealing with the dust
monitoring and trigger levels and those issues, is that right?
(Mr Berryman) That is correct.
3897. Can I ask you then to deal with the question
of maintaining loading spaces in Lindsey Street, which I think
is your final point?
(Mr Berryman) That is right. As I have explained
before, we have to construct the escalator box partly under Lindsey
Street and we propose to do that half and half, by building one
half of it first, sliding over, diverting the traffic on to the
half that we have already built and then building the other half.
If all goes well, and if things are as we expect them to be, that
should not be a major problem. We may be able to, during that
period, maintain some of the loading bays which the Petitioners
have requested; and, as we have already said, we will use reasonable
endeavours to do that. We are reluctant to give an undertaking
to do that because the condition of the arches underneath is not
yet known, and when we actually get to it we may find that it
is not actually practical to do it in quite the way which the
borough has suggested. However, we are happy to give an undertaking
to use reasonable endeavours to do that.
3898. Are there any other uncertainties which
exist which make it difficult to give any absolute guarantees
with regard to loading spaces in Lindsey Street?
(Mr Berryman) Yes. There is also the issue
of the fact that the Highway Authority in this area is the City
Corporation and they will be interested in making sure that traffic
circulates properly in the area and that there are no obstructions
caused. So we would need to get their approval for any such scheme.
Cross-examined by Mr Dingemans
3899. Mr Dingemans: As far as Lindsey
Street is concerned, can I deal first of all with maintaining
the loading bays? The difference between you and the Petitioner
is reasonable endeavours or an absolute undertaking. This is right,
is it not? You know the work site you are going to work on at
Lindsey Street, you know the parameters that exist there?
(Mr Berryman) Yes, we do within
the constraints of knowing what is there in the shape and sub-structure
and what we have to demolish, because Lindsey Street is not a
ground-on street—it does not sit on the soil, it actually
sits on a Victorian structure, the details of which we have as
much idea as we can get at this stage, but will not be clear until
we start demolition.
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