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A swathe of London faces months of disruption when 50 lorries a day start carrying earth dug from the Crossrail tunnel out of the capital.
Documents reveal today how routes including Oxford Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, Tottenham Court Road and Marylebone Road will be affected by the construction work.
The lorries will transport earth from central sites including Bond Street Station, Hanover Square, Newman Street, Oxford Street, Charing Cross Road and Goslett Yard. There are also major sites at Westbourne Park, Royal Oak and Paddington. Lorries will travel west along Harrow Road to the North Circular.
The routes link the sites to main arterial roads, such as the A40. Other roads head to the Thames, where boats will take over. The earth will be used at locations such as the 1,500-acre nature reserve at Wallasea Island, Essex. Tunnelling will take place from 2011 to 2014, and 7.3million square metres of earth weighing five million tonnes will be excavated. Work will be from 8am until 6pm. The report for Westminster's planning department says the lorry routes will "affect quality of life".
Campaigners and politicians voiced concerns over safety, congestion and noise. The New West End Company, which represents the area's businesses, said despite being "resolutely supportive" of Crossrail, its members were "extremely concerned" about the impact of construction on trade.
Green Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones said: "It is fairly disastrous having all these extra lorries on some of London's most congested roads. There will be worse air quality and a lot more cyclist deaths."
There will be about 50 lorry trips to Charing Cross Road and 50 out at the height of work, which is expected to last three months although dates are not finalised. Apart from that, trips will be about 42 a day. Crossrail said there would be fewer lorries at other sites.
The council will consider the proposals on Thursday. Crossrail said: "We have a strict construction code which lays out hours of work, levels of noise, and we will not stray from that."
Reader views (15)
What a load of nonsense. 50 lorries a day is peanuts. That's less than 5 an hour. There are nearly 300 yes 300 buses an hour that use the Charing Cross Road, Tottenham Court Road junction.
As for Jenny Jones - what a disgrace. Just how does she expect a railway, which will be greener, take people out of their cars and improve the environment, to be built. Yet again the Greens prove they are in the dark ages.
- Luke, London
The main tunnelling spoil will go out through the tunnels as they are built.
This is about spoil from Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street station works, long BEFORE the main tunnels reach them. 50 lorry movements a day = one every half hour, which is hardly a lot for a sizeable building site.
- Alan Griffiths, Forest Gate, LONDON
Keith, King's Cross - that was a joke, right?
- Rogan, Irving
"Dig another hole and put the dirt there?"
Are you people having a laugh? What would you do with the dirt from *that* hole?
- Roy, England
This will no doubt leave the road surface full of potholes, cracks, debris and splodges of hardened concrete for years to come -- an absolute misery for non-car traffic using the road.
- Francois, Kilburn
Another advantage of getting Crossrail built during a recession is revealed. There will be many more lorries NOT on the roads gecause they AREN'T carrying away the rubble and diggings from a large number of central London commercial property developments. So in absolute terms, things will be less bad on the roads than they were a couple of years ago when the economy was booming, or like we hope they will be in a few years when it recovers.
- Nigel, London
Cycling Forum:
Turning to the issues of lorries, Inspector Aspinall told the meeting about a day of City of London spot checks on HGVs, carried out on 30 September 2008 as part of the Europe-wide Operation Mermaid, which is intended to step up levels of enforcement of road safety laws in relation to lorries.
On this one day, 12 lorries were stopped randomly by City Police.
Five of those lorries were involved in the construction work for the 2012 Olympics.
All of the twelve lorries were breaking the law in at least one way.
Repeat: a 100 per cent criminality rate among small random sample of HGVs on the streets of central London.
The offences range included overweight loads (2 cases), mechanical breaches (5 cases), driver hours breaches (5 cases), mobile phone use while driving (2 cases), driving without insurance (2 cases) and no operator license (1 case).
- Sally, Barnes
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
Goslett ~Yard to the Embankment 15mins walk if that, straight down Charing Cross Rd to Charing Cross Station and Bob's your uncle.
- Very Angry At Mp'S Expenses, Home Counties
Why don't they just dig another hole and bury the earth in that?
- Keith, King's Cross
50 Lorries through central London every day for Crossrail dirt,, why cant they just dig another hole and put it in there.
- Mr S.Port, London
Omelettes and eggs, chaps...
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one
Scrap it, waste of money and will cause complete congestion in central London. Come on Boris, do the right thing and ditch it now same with the olympics.
- Frank, London
It's all next to the Thames - Build a pontoon peir and take it out by barge - probably more cost effective in the long run and greener.
- Very Angry At Mp'S Expenses, Home Counties
Sorry but Crossrail is under Oxford Street which no where near the River (well apart from The Tybourne!).
This is nothing new how do you think that The Jubilee and Victoria lines were built? - Oxford Circus had a large umbrella over it for a number of years when the Victoria Line was built.
However, with the dis-used former Post Office railway nearby I cant see why it cant be used for both spoil removal and eventually deliveries of rail etc. Along most of the central route of Crossrail which it happens to follow!!!
Anyway why worry about a few lorries when next year thousands of cars and vans will flood the area west of Edgware Road when the WEZ is abolished!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
It's all next to the Thames - Build a pontoon peir and take it out by barge - probably more cost effective in the long run and greener.
- Very Angry At Mp'S Expenses, Home Counties
Its all very well moaning about it, but unless someone offers a solution surely the long term benefit outweighs the short term problem?
I had heard of them using the old Post Office railway, guessing that's not happening now.
- Simon, London
