Cambridge South new station construction progress.

[chris2]

That makes sense, thanks

 

[neill]

Here is the view today from the busway bridge. The new lines through P3 and P4 are now in use. If I understand the signs correctly there is a 50mph TSR in place, at least in the up direction.




Here is a a clearer view than before of work at the Long Road bridge. Looks like there is a footing being prepared but it's very wet at the moment.

South of Cambridge station the new OLE portals for the new layout are in place but not wired up yet.

 

[Nodding Cat Ch]

^ Nice Pictures!
See Cambridge South (05.01.24) from both sides of the train simultaneously.

 

[snowball]

I assume that's a model DNA molecule on the left side of the track at 1:10? (slowed playback recommended)

 

[neill]

I assume that's a model DNA molecule on the left side of the track at 1:10? (slowed playback recommended)

I think that’s one of the end markers for the ‘DNA’ cycle path that runs alongside the railway as far as Shelford.

See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat...National_Cycle_Route_11_at_Great_Shelford.jpg

 

[Nodding Cat Ch]

Yep, it's one of the two DNA sculptures along the 10,000th mile of National Cycle route, with DNA stripes down the middle.

 

[Magdalia]

The DNA path runs from the bridge over the Nine Wells stream to Granhams Road level crossing. There is a DNA double helix sculpture at each end. The stripes on the path are in 4 colours each representing one of the 4 nucleotides in the DNA sequence.

The cycle path was diverted just before Christmas, but only north of the bridge over the Nine Wells stream. The diversion goes diagonally across the field and comes out at the Abcam roundabout. The old path linking these two points that went under Addenbrookes Road Bridge is now closed and used by contractors working on the new station.

The triangle of land between the old and new paths is now a compound for storage including track panels removed as part of the recent diversion of the track.

There has been lots of rain recently, including 40mm in the first 4 days of January, and a lot of the land in and around the site is currently under standing water.

An even more tangential development concerns the big red crane that appeared in the background of lots of Cambridge South pictures. This was being used to construction of Astra Zeneca buildings in Francis Crick Avenue but last week it was dismantled and removed.

 

[jfowkes]

The DNA path runs from the bridge over the Nine Wells stream to Granhams Road level crossing. There is a DNA double helix sculpture at each end. The stripes on the path are in 4 colours each representing one of the 4 nucleotides in the DNA sequence.

<very off-topic> Specifically, it is the sequence of the BRCA2 gene that if damaged plays a significant role in breast cancer development. This gene was chosen because its research history is heavily connected to the nearby Sanger Institute.

 

[neill]

Unlike the DNA sculptures, this piling rig only has a single helix. It was drilling the foundations for the main station building this morning.

 

[neill]

Some photos from this morning, from the busway bridge again. Piling is underway for the main station building, while over on the west side the level has been brought up over quite a large area. I assume the later is for the forecourt and bike storage. As for platforms now that the old line has been removed and the old OLE demolished it looks like work is underway to put the face of P2 in place in the near future.

 

[LBMPSB]

Which TOC will own Cambridge South?

 

[William3000]

Which TOC will own Cambridge South?

I presume owner is Network Rail but operator and branding will be Greater Anglia.

 

[neill]

Lots of progress recently. The face of platform 2 is now mostly in place so the layout is now much clearer. Good progress on the west side with the forecourt there being built up and levelled and what look like foundations for the new bridge going in.

 

[neill]

Further update from this morning. Work continues on foundations and floors for the station buildings and pedestrian bridge. Over in the park it looks like assembly has started on the new train shed…

 

[Strat-tastic]

What possessions are coming up please?
And where is mr_mooo?

 

[Netwrox]

What possessions are coming up please?
And where is mr_mooo?

A lot! Got this letter the other day. I live just south of Shepreth Branch Junction

 

[Strat-tastic]

Great, thanks.

 

[mr_moo]

Hi everyone.

I'm back! Sorry.

Firstly, where was I?
I've not read back through however many pages I have lost touch with yet, so I don't know what theories you guys have mooted, but here's the best I can give you.
Basically my life went a bit crazy.

We had to move out of our house in Swindon on a few days notice, initially into an airbnb then into a nice rental house. My child changed school and that's been fun with it's own set of things that need dealing with.
We're now selling our old house which is in itself fun from afar, so I've had lots of weekends going back and forth, am dealing with works, cleaning and tidying, plus three weekends worth of removals vans (self drive/load) and now estate agents and all the fun of paperwork etc. Oof.
Add to that some mental health problems, my beloved project being a bit crazy on the run up to our big commissioning at Christmas and lots going on, some physical health problems, and just being knackered overall, I had to put the forum down the priority list.
The keen-eyed will notice my location has updated to Cambridge, so I'm now on site even more than I was, as I now live nearby!

I've not left the project, nor have I been told to stop posting or anything. Indeed, I have a lot of photos for you from the various site works, including many of those weekends where I was out in my oranges. I'll post some soon, endeavour to go through the various questions I haven't answered, and will post some older photos to try to catch up a bit, but, naturally, that will take me a few weeks to do probably! Bit by bit.

So, to start you off, here's some great pictures taken recently by a drone we sent up. These were taken on 15th Feb:



Key things of note in these pictures.

• The weird alignment where the tracks diverge then come together again at the North end is not just our designers playing games - it's careful staging! We'll be cutting sections of that out later to install pointwork and the future layout. We've put the track as close as possible to the final layout to avoid too much temporary alignments, which all require formation treatments etc, which all costs money.
• The trenches you can see at South end of platform 4 and in the island platform are the tops of the piles for what will be the footbridge at the South end of the station. The wall on platform 4 that is set a lot further back than the rest of the platform is where the emergency exit into Hobsons park will go. It's not going to be a normal entrance - just an emergency exit.
• The photo of our storage compound shows the wide variety of things we store pending installation. It's quite busy at times in there! This photo was taken during a quieter time. The odd looking building that looks like some metal beams balanced on shipping containers is exactly that! It's a temporary structure to enable us to store parts of the main station building in the dry, pending installation.
• The big white rectangle on the ground over near the hospital is the top of a large drainage attenuation tank.
• The rectangles are the bases for the lift shafts. There are three sets of two lifts.
• The section with lots of rebar and caps is where the main station enclosed building is going, so the toilets, equipment rooms, mess facilities etc etc etc. The section on the right around the lift shafts is the bases for what will be roof and stair supports.
• One of the key reasons why the compound went so far into Hobson park is clear - we've very carefully avoided damaging the young trees as much as possible.

More to follow. Sorry again for the silence over a while, but feel free to ask questions etc. I also look forward to meeting a few of you at the upcoming Cambridge meal.

 

[Bald Rick]

Nice one @mr_moo, always appreciate the updates. Hope you are on the mend, and that you are settled in Cambridgeshire.

 

[Magdalia]

Firstly, where was I?

Thanks for the update. You have clearly had more important things to do since the last one.

The keen-eyed will notice my location has updated to Cambridge, so I'm now on site even more than I was, as I now live nearby!

Welcome to Cambridgeshire! I hope that you and your family enjoy your time here.

 

[Trainbike46]

Lovely to see you back here mr moo! I hope you're on the mend and you and your family are settling into cambridgeshire well!

 

[mr_moo]

Thank you everyone. Cambridge is nice, if a lot more expensive (in house prices) than Swindon!

FYI we should have a crane on site this weekend lifting in the very first parts of the station structure. I won't be on site to see it sadly!

---
No-one replied so it merged my post above with my pics below.
---

During the Christmas block, we created a short video showing some of the works and some of the people involved in the site.
Enjoy:

Also, it's been a great weekend. The station building has started to appear. This is the West side.


We also did some track renewals between Shepreth Branch Junction and the station:


We also did some OLE work at Hills road and Long road. (No exciting pics!)

Dukes No 2 LC (This one:https://maps.app.goo.gl/iuXgWHUes65YjyLu7) is now closed and removed.


Also, one last bit of fun for you to watch - Here's a cab ride video through the site, taken a few weeks ago:

 

[Hyllsmoo]

I took this looking down the track from the Guided Bussway bridge a few days ago.

 

[mr_moo]

Right, time to catch up on some of those questions that I missed while I went AWOL!

A lot! Got this letter the other day. I live just south of Shepreth Branch JunctionView attachment 152681

You'll be pleased to know you get a break after that though. Ignoring small overnight stuff, the next full weekend closure after those dates will be 14/15 September.

I did notice that there was work going on south of Foxton but I can’t imagine that is related to the station.

In addition to the photos from busway bridge there are some showing the cycle path @Magdalia mentions near the Addenbrookes road bridge. I think this is temporary - I guess for access? There are also photos showing the OLE work from Shrepeth junction up to the site.

Anyone have any ideas what is going on with the mast that seems to be attached to a half driven pile!?

Foxton - No idea what's happening down there but yep, nothing to do with us. I do know there is a planned S&C renewal for xmas 24 down there so perhaps some prep work for that, or perhaps something as part of the C3R programme.

Cycle path diversion - Yes, this is temporary. The original path will be restored to use sometime early next year.

That cool mast - This is (sort of) deliberate! We installed the pile and it refused. We tried again, and hammered more, and more, and it just would not go down. so, with a substantially increased downwards load bearing capacity due to whetever buried boulder or something we have hit, we did some checks on overturning etc given the depth it had gone down to, and it passed as able to be loaded. We could have cut the pile down at that point and installed a standard mast, which is standard practice for most places when they hit that kind of issue, but that's a waste of metal and time. As we hadn't placed the order for the mast on top of it at that point, we instead modified the mast dimensions to shorten it, and the mast was supplied reduced to suit. Less money, less waste, less time, and a fun thing to spot on the side of the railway.

It looks as though all the OLE masts between Shepreth Branch Junction and the new station are being replaced. I understand the area around the changes at the junction, and where the track will splay out from two to four around the Addenbrooke's Road bridge, but doesn't the track in between just stay where it is? Why does it need new masts all the way along?

Shepreth Branch Junction is getting much longer. In terms of being a crossover and a 2 turnouts, it's essentially the same layout as today, but the speed is being increased to 50mph and thus the S&C has got longer. It's also been done so that most of the new S&C can be installed before removing the existing. The new turnout to the Up Royston needs to wait till xmas 24 as it clashes, but the new crossover and new end of the Down Royston are moved Northwards. The toes of the future S&C for the new extended Down Royston (meaning there will be three tracks here for a few hundred metres) are around the area where Dukes LC was.
This explains all the digging you can see in the cess on the cab ride video - this is the preparation of the formation for the new extended Down Royston.
This turnout will be the first new set of points to be installed by the program, arriving within the next few months.

Another question for @mr_moo - what equipment is being used on the "new" OLE? I can see that Mk3 registrations have been used on the temporary positions/masts etc, but I wonder what the permanent cantilevers will be formed of...

Mixture of Mk 3 and series 1.



More to come later...

 

[jfowkes]

Welcome to Cambridge @mr_moo and thanks for all the updates!

 

[Class 170101]

I took this looking down the track from the Guided Bussway bridge a few days ago.
View attachment 153852

Is that looking in the direction towards Cambridge or towards Shepreth Branch Jn?

 

[swt_passenger]

Is that looking in the direction towards Cambridge or towards Shepreth Branch Jn?

Towards Shepreth Branch Junction. If you compare the view with the second picture in post #812 you’ll get your bearings…

 

[petersi]

Mods Delete already posted

 

[neill]

Good to have you back @mr_moo!

This morning there was a crane on site getting setup:


The skeleton of the station really starting to take shape now. There has also been further progress with the foundations for the lifts on P2/P3 and infill between the platform faces.



On the way home this evening the crane was still there. Looks like it has been lifting precast sections of lift-shaft into place. There were a couple more sections still to be lifted. Maybe they will go in tomorrow?

 

[mr_moo]

Good pics neill - Thank you.
Yes, the crane will be busy tomorrow until about 3:00ish at which point it will be packed away. A few more of the elements of the station building structure going in.