Mwmbwls wrote:

I have been jotting down from various sources the main project
milestones for the ELLX work and would like to (a) be able to expand
the headings to a more detailed list and (b) mark them off as there
are completed. Please feel free to ammend the list if you are better
informed. March and May 2008 next year look interesting with no less
than three bridge launches. We will be able to see the gradient of the
new GE19 bridge as it climbs across the GEML - does anybody know if
this will be steeper than the Blackfriars to City Thameslink ski ramp
slope? We will also be able to see what looks like a very sharp curve
linking the Bishopsgate Goods Yard and the Kingsland viaduct - will
this become a neighbourhood nuisance as the wheels squeal 32 times an
hour?

June 2005: �35 million enabling works to rebuilding and refurbish the
Kingsland viaduct including 21 bridges from Shoreditch High Street to
Dalston. ( is this work now completed?)

I can only comment on what I can see from the ground, but all the
bridges (over roads) along the course of the line have certainly
looked like they've been finished for some time - at least since the
summer, if not beforehand.

The bow string arch bridge over the Regents Canal was launched some
time in the autumn of 2006 I think, but I don't have the exact date. I
haven't been past there for a little while, but there certainly still
looked like there was an amount of work going on at ground level for a
good while after the new bridge had been launched.


December 2007: Demolition of old Victorian GE19 bridge, formerly
linking Bishopsgate Goods Depot to Spitalfields, that spans Liverpool
Street Station approaches.
March 2008: Launch new bridge at Shoreditch High Street.
May 2008: Launch New Cross Gate flyover ( and I assume begin to open
the southbound link by extending through platform 1 in order to access
rail construction materials)

Platform 1, for those who don't know, is the existing ELL platform -
this photo, courtesy of Clive Feather, shows the situation as it is at
the moment.

I don't know what your source is, but might this link not actually
make sense if it were to be put in earlier - my understanding was that
TfL were hoping to shift a considerable amount of materials in by
rail.

May 2008: Launch new GE19 bridge in Spitalfields.
December 2008: Deliver first new train for testing.
June 2010: Northern extension complete, with new step-free stations
at:
� Shoreditch High Street built on the northern edge of the former GER
Bishopsgate Goods Depot ,located south of Bethnal Green Road, between
Shoreditch High Street and Wheeler Street
� Hoxton: located on the northeast corner of the junction of Cremer
Street and Geffrye Street
� Haggerston: located beside Acton Mews
� Dalston:Junction built in a cutting on the site of the old Dalston
Junction station to the south of Dalston Lane, between Kingsland Road
and Roseberry Place The four platform station will include two
through tracks to Highbury and Islington with a two centre reversing
tracks. The site above the station will be developed as a mixed use
development.

All above stations on the northern extension to Dalston Jn will be
opening along with the rest of the line in June 2010 surely...

June 2010: Southern extension complete to New Cross, Crystal Palace
and West Croydon .
February 2011: Further Northern extension from Dalston Junction to
Highbury and Islington complete.

Phase 2 - date not known but the project has been described by Network
Rail in South London RUS as an enabler to the now authorised
Thameslink upgrade.

At the southern end, the 'western' extension will run from south of
Surrey Quays to join the existing South London Line between South
Bermondsey and Queen's Road Peckham. This will require new track to
be constructed, partly on what was an East London Line freight train
route connection.(How much is new, how much reused?) The new link will
run at surface level along the western side of the Silwood Triangle,
across Surrey Canal Road, where a new station will be provided,
through the western edge of Bridge House Meadow, over the eastern end
of Hornshay Street, rejoining existing Network Rail infrastructure at
Wagner Street. In addition to Surrey Canal Road, the second phase
service will call at all stations from Dalston Junction to Clapham
Junction.


AIUI the new route will follow the alignment of the old route pretty
much exactly. I walked this route the other day and I'll try and find
some time over the festive period to post the (probably not very good)
photos I took. The only buildings that look like they're in the way
are some warehouse units of a business park north of Surrey Canal
Road. There would also need to be extensive works on Bridge House
meadows, as there has been an amount of landscaping along the course
of the alignment. There would also need to be some work to bring the
line up to cross Surrey Canal Road - or indeed the road could be
lowered.

From a quick perusal of planning and strategy documents on the LB
Lewisham website it looks like the Surrey Canal Rd station would sit
on the bridge that actually spanned the road itself.

By the way I think it's great you're keeping a track on the ELLX
milestones. One thing that I think would have been good to have
followed more closely and had a photographic record of is the work on
the line in the Spitalfields area - i.e. on the line between
Whitechapel and the Bishopsgate goodsyard. In addition it would've
been good to get photos of what was left of the old viaduct into Broad
Street just north of Great Eastern Street - a chunk of that has since
been knocked down, as that is where the ELLX will come and meet the
rest of the viaduct to take it up north.

I would hope that someone has been busy keeping a fairly complete
before, during and (eventually) after photographic record of the
changes - it'd certainly interest me!