Royal Docks Custom House Station

The project comprised of the design and construction of the new DLR Custom House Station adjacent to the ExCel Exhibition Centre in London’s Docklands. The works included the construction of a new mezzanine level across the full length of the existing platform to tie into the Crossrail footbridge. 

This included developing and completing the clients outline design, site clearance and demolition, temporary works, extensive groundworks and piling, concrete works, steelwork, roofing, cladding and curtain walling and M&E works. Associated works consisted of CCTV, public address, ticket machines, validators and other passenger interface and control systems, internal and external finishes, signage, EMC, earthing and bonding and plant room alterations.

The station is an ’Island station’ bordered by the new Custom House Crossrail station to the north and Excel to the south and sits beneath 400KV transmission lines. This presented a complex design and a construction challenge on this scheme.

In order to deliver the project, we formed a collaborative partnership and integrated project team with Civil Engineering Consultants, AECOM; Architects Weston Williamson & Partners, M&E specialists Railway Electrical Services, the client Docklands Light Railway and the end user, Crossrail. Weekly interdisciplinary meetings took place with all members of the team to ensure a value engineered and buildable design that addressed issues as they arose.

The RIBA design process was client driven to RIBA Stage 3. Our challenge moving into the Technical Design Stage 4 was to keep as close to the RIBA Stage 3 design as possible, whilst at the same time simplifying the build to enable the construction within tight programme constraints. We also took on the role of Principal Designer for this scheme.

All lifting works for the construction of the new two storey steel frame could only take place during a 3 hour ‘engineering hours’ window at night. This was because trains continued to pass either side of the station during the day limiting what work could be carried out outside the Island Platform boundary.

During the scheme we used members of our in-house engineering team to manage the design aspects of this multidisciplinary project. These members of staff are from production backgrounds which complement the other members of the design team, whilst also having design and temporary works experience ensuring a practical approach to the project.

One of the biggest design challenges had been to factor in the maintenance requirements of the station and early dialogue with the end user was an essential part of the design process and the scheme as a whole. A key consideration was how to clean and replace the glazing panels from the extensive mezzanine façade during the short engineering shift period after the last train passes and first train arrives. The presence of the overhead power lines and adjacent Crossrail OHLE equipment had put further restraints on what could be achievable in this short period of time.

The original design was to replace the glass from inside the station which therefore did not require any track access. However, due to the complex makeup of the ramped mezzanine the design was refined and the method of removing the glass from within the station would involve bespoke anchorages and require a horizontal break in the glass which would affect the scheme’s aesthetics.

The proposed OHLE structures posed issues with glass replacement on the outside and without the OHLE Masts being sleeved their exclusion zone significantly affected the options available such as using on track plant.

Our innovation and subsequently the agreed method of future removal of the glass was by installing a boson’s chair suspended from a rail in the roof and removed onto the mezzanine using a ‘glassboy’ mobile glass handler with the OHLE mast being sleeved by Crossrail.

The design was implemented at BIM level 2 using 3D models which were used during the design reviews and meetings. In addition, the models were used to further analyse risks and the resultant design risk information was embedded into this model.