Introduction
The Lancaster & Yorkshire Railway building, which occupied most of the site during the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, had a two-storey basement that retained Victoria Station Approach and Hunt’s bank. When the building was demolished during the late 1970s it is believed that the material from the upper levels was used to fill the basements levels, which were left largely intact.
In order to excavate the site to the required levels we propose to simply remove the rubble fill, leaving the basement and buttress walls to retain the street above once more. Ground Anchors will be used to stabilise the wall as the basement level buttress walls are progressively removed during excavation.
Since the Lancaster & Yorkshire Railway (LYR) building was demolished in the late 1970’s Hunt’s Bank and Victoria Station Approach has been widened so the perimeter basement walls now lie within the footpath, and outside the site boundary. The wall lies about 1.5m outside the boundary and approval from the neighbouring owners, Network Rail, was needed to temporarily occupy their land and use the wall.
Once excavation work is complete the new basement will be constructed inside the LYR perimeter walls and inside the boundary. The new basement will be designed to retain the streets above and no reliance will be placed on either the buried brick walls or the ground anchors in the long term.
This work is technically difficult and there is little known about the condition and profile of the buried Lancaster & Yorkshire Railway building. To mitigate the likely delays and variations involved in such work the works have been specified within an enabling works contract separate to the main building works. This is the section of preparatory works which are currently in progress.
Site Hoarding
Approval to occupy part of the footpath and relocate bus stops for the duration of the construction works (for both enabling works and mains contracts) has been agreed with Network Rail (who are the adjoining owners) and relevant stakeholders such as GMPTE and MEN.
Walker’s Croft
Walker’s Croft has now been stopped up and closed to public traffic, with the exception of Network Rail who have a right of way via Walker’s Croft to Victoria Station. The Temporary Traffic Order activated on 3 October 2009 and will last for up to 18 months. In the meantime we are pursuing a permanent stopping up order.
Excavation
The excavation is at an early stage and the initial row of ground anchors are being installed at the top of the LYR wall. The excavation will continue in stages with the working platform gradually reducing in height until it reaches the sandstone bedrock level, which will act as the platform for the foundations to be installed and the basement slab to be constructed.
