16 July (Part 4) - Crossrail info
As
predicted there is no way I’ll be able to summarise last night’s two hour
Cabinet meeting within today’s crowded schedule, for one thing I wanted to ask
some questions at the Crossrail event in Abbey Wood.
I discovered that the concrete columns to the west of Bostall Manorway are
indeed piles and they have been bashed into the ground until they reached
something solid. They will eventually be chopped off at ground level. Remember
this is, or hopefully was, the Thames floodplain and is basically marshland.
The huge drain in what was Abbey Wood station car park is the accumulation
vessel for the many 60 centimetre pipes that have been laid alongside the new
tracks to cater for unexpectedly heavy rain in a way that Bexley council never did
in Wilton Road which frequently floods.
The temporary station and the new footbridge will appear soon. I am not sure I
followed absolutely correctly but I think the footbridge will be part of the
permanent structure and only the access to it will be temporary.
The single Crossrail track extending half way to Belvedere will, as stated
previously, mainly be used to store broken trains so that they don’t seriously
impair the service. That track will join the North East Kent line, and similarly
near Plumstead, to allow diesel tugs to run around and haul failed trains away.
There is no possibility of passenger carrying trains dodging any track problems
via alternative routes if for no other reason than a 25,000 volts AC overhead supply
is incompatible with 750 volts DC on a third rail.
The house at the end of Florence Road that I have been watching is not due to
come down until the end of the year.
While I was there councillors Daniel Francis and Danny Hackett called in to show
their interest. They were happy to talk about this and that and took my
recent
dig at DF in good part which was a relief. The same of course could not be
said of three earlier visitors one of whom reported me to her friends in the police
for rather less. “Criticising councillors.”
As I entered the Community Hall at a minute before official opening
time I had to stand well to one side, the hall doorway is notoriously narrow,
while Teresa O’Neill, Linda Bailey and Don Massey filed silently out; my camera
unfortunately packed away.
However it is not often that I am invited to sign the same piece of paper as
three democracy deniers.