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News and Comment February 2024

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7 February - The electric tube is coming to Bexley

UK Power Networks has been burrowing under London and yesterday they updated the Places Scrutiny Committee on progress. The sixty five year old oil filled distribution cables have to be replaced and a tunnel has been bored between Crayford via Hurst Road, Kidbrooke and New Cross to Wimbledon. It should be fully fitted out by 2028. In North London 35 kilometres of tunnelling and cable is complete and cost around a billion pounds. The South London section will be another 32·5 kilometres of tunnel, another 200 kilometres of cable and another billion pounds.

The tunnels should allow the cabling infrastructure to be updated as demand for electricity increases without disrupting life above ground.

Councillor John Davey delved into the technicalities. “The cables under full load will generate a lot of heat. What happens to it?” The ventilators are in Crayford and Hurst Road (and in Eltham) and the cables will not be especially warm all the time. The fans will only run when required. The tunnels are around 50 metres below ground so the soil is unlikely to get warm.

Councillor James Hunt asked what will happen to the old oil filled cables. Will roads have to be dug up to reclaim them? No, the oil will be drained but where removal would cause disruption the cables will be abandoned.

There is a set of slides to illustrate the work being done.

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