Kings Avenue

Overview

Our site on Kings Avenue is located at the junction of Kings Avenue and Acre Lane. We are building a permanent shaft and headhouse at our Kings Avenue site, to drive a tunnel boring machine (TBM) to our reception site at Wimbledon and receive a tunnel boring machine from our existing substation site at New Cross. Excavated material will also be removed at this site.

We are building the tunnels and shafts under our permitted development rights, which means we do not need planning permission for the entire project. We have secured planning permission for the headhouse from the London Borough of Lambeth. The headhouse is required for ventilation and as a permanent point of access for the tunnel once it is built.
 

Key milestones achieved at Kings Avenue

National Grid has been working on the site since Spring 2020 and since this time we have:

• In 2018 and January 2020, we held public information events to provide updates before commencing the works in March 2020.

• Our Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Caroline was launched from Kings Avenue, and we have successfully completed 2.1km of tunnel construction towards Wimbledon, which includes crossing the Northern Line.

• In April 2023, we broke through from the New Cross site at Kings Avenue. With this milestone achieved, the TBM will be dismantled and removed from the tunnels by crane, utilizing the shaft already built at the site.

Working hours

• Our working hours at Kings Avenue are 24/7 from Thursday 27 April 2023 for four weeks.

• The change in working hours is permitted under our S61 agreement with Lambeth and there will be no activities above ground after 6pm.

• We do not expect this work to cause additional disruption or increase the number of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) movements.

Key facts

• Dimensions: The shaft will be approximately 15m in diameter and 35m in depth. The headhouse will have a maximum footprint of 9.5m long by 6m wide, reaching a maximum height of 4.6m.

• Access: Our construction vehicles will leave the site from Acre Lane or Kings Avenue, before joining the A23 and/or A205.
   

Timeline

• Works started in April 2020 and are due to finish in June 2025.

• The tunnel is scheduled to be built between May 2021 and July 2022.

• The initial tunnel clean to Wimbledon will take place between August 2022 and October 2022.

• The breakthrough from New Cross occurred in April 2023.

• Over the next four weeks, works will be taking place to remove the TBM and as part of the cleanout process.