In the run up to the opening of the Elizabeth Line, (Crossrail), Bond Street station has undergone some substantial upgrades to relieve congestion and provide step free access. A new entrance has opened on the north side of Oxford Street at Marylebone Lane.
It was while we were developing the new Crossrail station at Bond Street that London Underground asked us to develop the expansion proposals for the LU station, ready to receive the influx of new passengers that Crossrail and the emerging plans for Oxford Street would bring.
There was an amusing reversal of roles as we took over the lead design role and Mott Macdonald, the lead on the Crossrail station, slipped in under our contract for the project next door. We also brought in London Bridge Associates who lived in our office for a few months, as we progressed our joint construction and passenger planning exercises to come up with the practical, functional and economic arrangement that we have become expert in.
That was 2006 and now, 12 years later (why do so many of our transport projects take 12 years to be realised?) a Costain/Laing O’Rourke jv has just completed the project, with Laing O’Rourke’s Steve Nuttall, our colleague from Thameslink days, as the director in charge.
We are of course delighted to see that yet again, despite all the construction planning, assessments and adjustments in the intervening years, the result is much as we set it out all those years ago.
tma 