SSDA 2018 A W A R D
20 NSC
October 18
London
Bridge
Station
The wholesale transformation of
London Bridge Station includes
an enlarged street level concourse
underneath the tracks, integrated
new entrances and new platforms for more
trains, with three of its nine previously
terminating platforms converted to accept
through trains.
The redevelopment programme started
in 2012 and was scheduled to ensure the
station remained open for business at
all times. On 2nd January 2018, the final
section of the massive new concourse along
with five new platforms opened to the
public, with the remaining redevelopment
works finishing in the spring.
All of the station’s 15 platforms have
been rebuilt and are now covered by an
undulating canopy of steel and aluminium,
fabricated and installed by Severfield.
The eye-catching canopy roof is
modularised using open sections where
each module is approximately 9m deep by
3m wide. There are 1,200 prefabricated steel
cassettes, with each one a bespoke unit due
to the changing rooftop geometry. To save
time, cassettes were prefabricated offsite
and then craned into position, allowing the
canopy to be built during short night-time
construction hours.
The canopy structure comprises
Y-shaped columns supporting a longitudinal
spine beam formed from fabricated box
sections that have extended webs to create
service routes.
Platforms and canopies sit outboard of
the bridge girders, supported on transverse
‘elephant ear’ frames, and as trains pass over
the bridges any deflections cause the tips of
the ‘elephant ears’ to move longitudinally.
The plates that connect the frames to
the bridge girders are designed to balance
strength and stiffness, in order to resist
the applied loads while remaining flexible
enough to avoid fatigue. Toward the ends of
the decks, fatigue movements are higher and
radial spherical bearings are used.
The centrepiece of London Bridge
Station’s redevelopment is the concourse,
which is nearly 80m wide. There is also
an expansive central space at the heart
of the concourse which deals with the
level changes across the site. The large
span of this space was achieved by using
a longitudinal V-column to support a 5m
deep Vierendeel truss.
Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd fabricated,
supplied and erected the steelwork for
the rail bridge decks that span the new
concourse.
The concourse bridge decks are made up
of three to four spans of simply supported
decks for each rail line. Each bridge deck
comprises six main girders braced together
London Bridge Station has undergone a stunning
transformation that has delivered a better
connection between London’s home counties and
an increase in passenger capacity by two-thirds.
/Fabrication
/Multi-girder_composite_bridges#Longitudinal_girders
/Steel_construction_products#Flat_products_-_plates
/Fatigue_design_of_bridges
/Bridge_articulation_and_bearing_specification#Spherical_bearings
/Trusses#Vierendeel_trusses
/Design_for_steel_bridge_construction#Bridge_erection
/Multi-girder_composite_bridges
/Multi-girder_composite_bridges#Bracing