Kings Avenue

Site update

We will be working this Saturday (25 March) to replace an on-site crane to support our ongoing works at our Kings Avenue site.

Our working hours this weekend will be from 7.30am to 5.30pm. Deliveries for the new crane will be arriving throughout the day and the old crane is scheduled to be removed from site on Monday 27 March.

You may notice an increase in traffic caused by the deliveries but please be assured that we will do all we can to minimise disruption. If you would like to raise any issues, please call us directly on 0800 783 2855 so we can help.

Overview

Our site on Kings Avenue is located at the junction of Kings Avenue and Acre Lane. We will be building a permanent shaft and headhouse at our Kings Avenue site, to drive a tunnel boring machine 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:

held public information events in 2018 and January 2020 ahead of works starting in March 2020
launched our Tunnel Boring Machine, Caroline, from Kings Avenue
completed 2.1km of tunnel construction towards Wimbledon, including crossing the Northern Line.

Working hours

Our working hours at Kings Avenue are 8am-7pm Monday-Friday
Occasional weekend work is required, with hours 8am-1pm
Out of hours work may be necessary at points throughout the project, we will keep you informed about this.

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 TBM from our New Cross site is due to arrive in late March or early April 2023