The United Kingdom’s rail ridership has seen an increase of more than 100 percent over the last 20 years.
To meet this existing and future demand, the Wessex Capacity Alliance delivered a $568.7M USD enhancement between 2014 and 2019. This program increased capacity by 30 percent on the Wessex rail route, including at the United Kingdom’s busiest railway station with nearly 100 million annual passengers, London Waterloo. It was delivered under a design-build alliance and provides a bigger and better Waterloo with lengthened and new platforms, other station improvements and rail systems upgrades.
AECOM, as Lead Designer and Alliance Member, provided a wide range of engineering, architectural and consultancy services with a large portion of the design team co-located with the contractor and the client. We provided the Contractor’s Engineering Manager (CEM) and had responsibility for integrating all design and construction works within the Alliance. Close working relationships were developed with Network Rail’s asset engineers allowing a streamlined approvals methodology, thus driving a lean approach and saving approximately six months of design time and associated costs. BIM was used extensively to drive efficiency and the safety agenda and was used for detailed staging plans for a successful 24-day blockade at Waterloo Station. Our team also implemented an integrated approach to sustainability across all project phases, leading to a CEEQUAL Excellent rating.