The Laing O’Rourke Explore Industrial Park, which is built on the site of a former colliery, is producing prefabricated elements that will be trucked to east London where they will be assembled on site to become Crossrail’s new Custom House station.
Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin, himself an ex-miner, this week visited the factory with Crossrail chief executive Andrew Wolstenholme and hailed it as an example of how the £14.8bn project was creating jobs across the country and not just in London.
Mr Wolstenholme said that prefabrication was a good solution for Crossrail. “It may seem unusual for a station to be constructed 130 miles away, but the method saves time and money and minimises disruption. The job on site at Custom House becomes one of assembly rather than traditional construction, significantly simplifying the process of building a station. Crossrail is committed to capturing the kind of innovation on display at Steetley to ensure that it can be applied to future projects and continue to drive up standards in the industry.”
Laing O’Rourke director of manufacturing Russell Kellett said: “It’s thanks to the latest advances in digital engineering that allow our designers to model every aspect of the new station virtually, and then manufacture the major structural components here in the factory. This ensures that every item is made to a far higher quality than possible on site, the whole build process is more efficient, and the sustainability benefits are improved through fewer vehicle movements and less time required on site compared to traditional methods.”
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