High-speed line on fast track: The massive project to build the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is running on time and to budget

摘要

An unusual sight greeted local residents wandering down York Way alongside King's Cross Station in London on Christmas Day. A massive steel railway bridge weighing 2,065 tonnes was being slid metre by metre into position above the East Coast Main Line in a possession lasting 55 hours. This wonderfully intricate piece of engineering was a highly visible illustration of how the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) continues to come together in readiness for its full opening in 2007. The CTRL is being built in two sections. Section 1, which opened for commercial services last September, is the 74km from the Channel Tunnel to Fawkham Junction in north Kent. Section 2, work on which began in July 2001 and includes the York Way bridge, extends the new high-speed line 39km into London's St Pancras via new international stations at Stratford in east London and Ebbsfleet in north-west Kent. The CTRL, which will slash journey times to places such as Paris and Brussels, is one of the biggest civil, electrical and mechanical engineering projects undertaken in Britain in recent years, and is so far running on time and to budget.