SHIP SHAPE (LIMEHOUSE LINK)

This article shows how joint venture contractor Balfour Beatty Amec had to cope with unusually constrained and difficult access on its 1.8km Limehouse Link cut-and-cover road contract. It was not possible to use for access the already congested A13 trunk road at the site's northern boundary or the busy local roads. Most of the plant, equipment and materials had to be brought in and out by barge on the River Thames, which ran along the southern side of the narrow and restricted site. Waste from site clearance, including removed foundations of demolished buildings, was shipped downstream to East Tilbury, then offloaded at a temporary jetty. Some of the items of heavy plant were brought in at the old Dundee Wharf, which later had to be replaced by a new wharf with three separate working areas. Two Elba batching plants supplied the concrete for the new wharf. Muck, excavated from the cut-and-cover tunnelling, was transported by articulated dumptrucks to a receiving hopper on the wharf. The main diaphragm walling under bentonite was done with a mixture of six heavy crawler cranes, mounted with Bachy grabs. Much material had to be cleared to excavate Limehouse Basin and build a cofferdam round it; for example, silt had to be removed with the aid of two dredgers. For the covering abstract see IRRD 860559.