Baker Street |
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Outside the Marylebone Road exit, a large statue of Sherlock Holmes commemorates the fictional detective's association with Baker Street. A restoration in the 1980s on the oldest portion of the Baker Street station brought it back to something similar to its 1863 appearance. Over the next few decades this section of the station saw much rebuilding to provide four platforms. The current Metropolitan line layout largely dates from 1925 and the bulk of the surface buildings, designed by the architect Charles Clark, also date from this period. With the onset of the new rolling stock on the Metropolitan line, Livis were employed by Vinci Construction to lengthen all four platforms. Platforms 1 & 2 were extended by 33 metres and platforms 3 & 4 extended to 55 metres. The main body of the works took place over 10 off 52 hour weekend posessions over a six month period. Prior to each posession Livis and Vinci Construction worked very closely together planning the scope of work in great detail, producing an hour by hour programme. Detailed planning was particularly important on this project as the posession was to be shared with Track Alliance who were going to be moving and installing track. Baker Street offered difficult access to the Metropolitan line platforms due to their location. To alleviate this, a 250 tonne crane was utilised. Following a detailed lifting programme, in excess of one hundred lifts were carried out during each closure. Scope of work An area of existing platforms and their ramps, signals, equipment, end barriers, cabling and OPO equipment were removed/demolished. New concrete foundation bases were installed and the platform extensions were constructed using a concrete modular system that consisted of precast ‘T’ shaped piers and platform slab sections. The coping/nosing stones were installed to the new platform sections after the main installation had been completed. The new platform barriers were designed and manufactured by a specialist sub-contractor appointed by Livis. These were lifted into place during the possessions. Other works consisted of new signal bases, new lighting column bases, the installation of the lighting posts, new tiling to the transition areas of platforms, platform ramps and platform markings. During each closure, senior management and directors were on site to deal with all eventualities and had overall responsibility for the programmed management.
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