Opinion

The Crossrail legacy

Crossrail

Projects like Crossrail are under scrutiny for their legacy. Delivering real value to more people with less impact is all part of the challenge.

Large-scale infrastructure projects are gestures of national and political self-confidence.  At their most exciting, they are grandstanding acts of sheer bravado which showcase the very best in all departments – design, technology, engineering and indeed sustainability.

Projects such as Crossrail and the still emerging HS2 demand attention. In funding terms alone they are politically sensitive and open to microscopic scrutiny. They are judged on the extent to which they are deemed affordable, necessary, disruptive and ultimately beneficial to our economic and social wellbeing. In short they must jump through multiple hoops and keep jumping.

"Just over half way into construction, Crossrail is arguably an example of the “change to move forward” phenomenon. The challenge for anyone working on the project is to think differently and think about how to play a part in a positive Crossrail legacy."

For all the squabbles over cost and construction impacts, a project like Crossrail will ultimately be judged on its legacy. How has the railway delivered sustainable change for those who must travel in and around London? How has it raised the bar in areas like construction impacts and personal safety? Has the project actually made people think differently about how to build infrastructure on this scale.

London, as Peter Ackroyd reminds us in his barn of a book on the capital, has always been a churning melting pot of change.  Impatient, often disruptive but also incredibly innovative in the way it grabs the next opportunity.

Just over half way into construction, Crossrail is arguably an example of the “change to move forward” phenomenon. It has the scale both to provoke attention but also to impose itself in the standards demanded of contractors and all those associated with the project.  The challenge for anyone working on the project is to think differently and think about how to play a part in a positive Crossrail legacy.

In his Foreword to the company’s 2014 Sustainability Report, Chief Executive Andrew Wolstenholme notes that one of Crossrail’s legacies must be to make the construction industry safer.  The same might apply to making it quieter, cleaner, less polluting and more employee friendly. In simple terms, Crossrail is big enough to make a difference in all these areas and the stats suggest it is doing just that.

While Londoners like to make themselves heard above the general hubbub around them, Crossrail has answered them in the way it digs and tunnels around the clock. This includes not only being responsive to complaints but also being genuinely innovative in the use of lower emission, quieter machinery and equipment. In this respect it is asking contractors to go that bit further in sourcing sustainable supplies and generally buying into the sustainability ethos of the project.

"The upshot is that the legacy light at the end of Crossrail’s tunnel is already starting to attract the attention of other major infrastructure teams, both in the UK and overseas."

The point is that Crossrail is a big enough customer to make these demands – whether we are talking about ultra lightweight trains or apprenticeships and conditions of employment.  Jump on board the project and you are required to subscribe to a more elemental brand of sustainability thinking. Thus sustainability becomes as factor in all decision making, helping to drive the project forward and helping to create what we can call a sustainability legacy. 

In fact, thr Crossrail legacy ought to be overwhelmingly positive on s number of fronts – for example better access to work and leisure, more rail rather than congested road travel and little or no impact on precious ecology.  Add to these factors such as the project’s archaeological finds and the creation of a new wetland habitat using excavated chalk and the legacy appears to punctuate progress like a series of well-marked station stops.

As if to make doubly sure, the project is committed to a programme of external assessment through schemes like the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality (CEEQUAL) methodology and BREEAM,  the Building Research Environmental Assessment Methodology which has been adopted for all stations in the central section. Again we go back to a requirement for sustainability thinking at the earliest design stage in order to target what for BREEAM is a ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ rating.

The upshot is that the legacy light at the end of Crossrail’s tunnel is already starting to attract the attention of other major infrastructure teams, both in the UK and overseas.  The Crossrail legacy may well help these projects in their efforts win wider approval. It can also provide a platform for doing sustainability even better.

Nick Cottam is a freelance writer and Temple associate.