Crossrail Gets Final ApprovalThe Crossrail Bill was approved by the House of Lords on 22nd July, 2008 after being amended by the House of Commons on the last day of the parliamentary session. The project will enable the construction of a railway from Heathrow and Maidenhead to the west of London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood to the east. It will travel via two twin tunnels under central London incorporating stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel and Isle of Dogs (Canary Wharf) with the east Shenfield and Abbey Wood also benifitting. The Crossrail Act grants powers to acquire land and for Crossrail to be built and maintained.With secure funding and the appointment of Cross London Rail Links (CLRL) as the nominated undertaker to be made in the next few days, this exciting project is finally taking shape. CLRL is a 50/50 joint venture company formed by Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport (DfT). Network Rail is responsible for the design, development and delivery of the works outside the tunnel area on the existing rail network.Estimates of the advantages to the economy from the GBP15.9 billion Crossrail project is an estimated GBP20 billion to the UK economy and a boost to employment seeing 14,000 more jobs created in the construction industry. Crossrail will provide a huge boost to public transport across the capital and beyond, linking some of the UK's busiest transport hubs and adding a vast array of new journey opportunities to commuters, business and leisure travellers. It will bring an additional 1.5 million people within 60 minutes commuting distance of London's key business districts and is forecast to create 30,000 jobs. Bid shortlists for the delivery partner and design partner are being compiled by CLRL and winners will be declared in the coming months. The appointment of a delivery partner will reinforce the existing project team's professional programme, project and engineering management services. Click uk/40 Design consultants will also be appointed to help the project maintain its flexibility of approach to a complex and challenging design. CLRL have expressions of interest in for the preliminary works, but tenders haven't been invited yet. This is planned in autumn this year. For the main works, CLRL will be holding open discussions and road shows with contractors next year and expects a lot of interest from European and international contractors. Enabling works will take place next year, with main construction set to begin in 2010. Passenger numbers are likely to increase by an extra 10% when the project is operational by 2017.The twin bore tunnels will be built that are wide enough to carry main line passenger trains beneath the heart of the city. The internal diameter of the tunnels will be six metres, compared with 3.8 metres on the existing London Underground system. In all, 22 km of twin bore tunnels will be constructed. Click here and here. Visit www.crossrail.co.uk 31/08.