Piles driven into operational railway tunnel during construction

TheBandicoot

The RAIB in the UK have released a report into an incident where a building was planned, approved, and piles driven, all without realising there was a railway tunnel below them. It would be funny if it wasn't so worrying!

http://raib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/reports_2014/report032014.cfm

Think this image sums up the scale of the possible consequences..

TheBandicoot

I love the idea of the task outlined in part of the report :

London Underground staff also walk the routes of tunnels at street level to look
for evidence of development work (eg demolition and site activity) which may not
have been identified by other processes. The streets above subsurface tunnels
(eg the Metropolitan, District and Circle Lines) are walked every four weeks, and
above deep tube routes every eight weeks.

Strikes me as a very sensible and pragmatic action in a world of bureaucracy.

101sean

Interesting read, seems the tunnels had fallen through the cracks mapping wise having been swapped between owners several times. All the LU lines inc deep tube are very accurately mapped now (have much of them on my PC as I work for one of their contractors) but it's not in the public domain. Having said that there are a lot of redundant features that may not be so accurately mapped.

You can get books on walking the Underground on the surface, all the sub surface lines and most of the early deep tube follow the roads above.

The_Wanderer

I read the report last night. What I found amazing was that the OS didn't know the railway had been transferred from LT to BR in 1975.

Ever since a being a kid, and having a big interest in the railways of London, this railway has never appeared on any of the A to Z maps. Where as a normal "BR line" would have. I always considered the reason being it didn't appear was due to the fact it was a deep level tube line (although built to mainline gauge).

If you're ever in London I recommend a trip on the Northern City Line. It's like a timewarp, with very dilapidated looking infrastructure. The stations still retain Network South East branding. NSE ceased in 1994 when BR was split up.

Essex Road Station: http://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/International/2013/UK-Trip-Friday-24th-May-2013/i-zNsg7VZ#!/International/2013/UK-Trip-Friday-24th-May-2013/i-vsCsjMf