Bond Street - Fire Detection and Alarm System
Bond Street station, which is located on Crossrail’s Elizabeth Line, opened for passenger service on Monday 24th October 2022. With trains running every five minutes, the station will help improve accessibility and increase capacity, with the scope to accommodate 137,000 Elizabeth line passengers daily, adding to an overall station capacity of 225,000 across the Jubilee, Central and Elizabeth lines.
The station upgrade includes two new ticket halls at street level and a tunnel/walkway underground, which connects the existing London Underground station to the new Crossrail station. It is a mined station, approximately 28 metres below ground. The station’s new passenger platform is 255 metres in length and is step-free from street to train with two general use passenger lifts.
L.B. Foster Technology Services was employed from November 2020 to October 2022 to undertake the design verification, installation, commissioning and integration of a Fire Detection and Alarm System, located in the station. The contract covered the installation of secondary cable management systems, wiring, and fire assets, including the commissioning of fire assets within 583 rooms, two ticket halls, back of house areas, two platforms, plant rooms, tunnel vent rooms, cross passages, machine rooms, lifts and escalators.
During this time, L.B. Foster Technology Services had a team of over 60 people working on the project (including prelims) for a total of 129,700 hours.
Requirement
Bond Street station is the last of the Crossrail stations to be completed and open for service. The station was identified to have complications by Crossrail Limited early on in the tunnelling stages, with various unforeseen issues delaying the opening of the station. L.B. Foster Technology Services has worked across six of Crossrail’s central stations and has developed a reputation on the project for delivering carefully considered solutions when other contractors have failed.
At Bond Street station, L.B. Foster Technology Services’ inhouse Fire Team was contracted to deliver:
- 6 Fire Control Panel Nodes, with 22 loops inclusive of circa 800 devices.
- 78 Damper Control Panels (12 Way & 4 Way), with circa 368 associated dampers.
- 22 Vesda Aspirating Smoke Detection Panels, with over 1km of 22mm copper pipework.
- Networking of Node panels inclusive of integration into the existing London Underground Station.
- All secondary Cable Management Systems and associated wiring.
Our Solution
L.B. Foster Technology Services worked with Crossrail Limited on the design verification, installation, commissioning and integration of a Fire Detection and Alarm System in Bond Street’s Crossrail Station into the live operational London Underground Bond Street Station.
Due to the vast experience of their management and site teams, L.B. Foster was able to provide significant value gained from working on large complex infrastructure projects. During this project, successful stakeholder communication/engagement was key to implementing changes successfully, while providing engineering solutions which were fit for purpose and cost-effective.
Resultantly, the Design and Install phases of the Fire Detection and Alarm System ran smoothly and concurrently, with L.B. Foster advising on product selection and installation methodologies to facilitate the success of key programme milestones. This consisted of prompt solutions and processes being proposed for the integration and migration of the Fire Detection System from a temporary construction status, into a live operational status. It was also crucial that the complexities of migration were successfully communicated and aligned with third-party testing and construction activities.
L.B. Foster was able to deliver the Fire Detection System ahead of programme and mitigated any delays to planned third-party testing.
“L.B. Foster showed a wealth of knowledge and experience, providing identification of potential issues and construction challenges whilst providing suitable cost-effective solutions. L.B. Foster was proactive in endeavouring to meet the project requirements, management of a complex project and delivery of assurance for the operational railway; whilst hitting key programme milestones.
L.B. Foster demonstrated enhanced capabilities in management, design, installation and commissioning, delivering an outstanding product with professionalism.”
Crossrail Fire Delivery Manager
