Golders Green tube station is step free

Tube Lines has completed the step free access project at Golders Green tube station on the busiest line on the network - the Northern line.

Two lifts have been installed on the island platforms to make the station more accessible to over seven million passengers who use it each year to travel around the capital.

The project was a huge undertaking taking close to two-and-a-half years to complete.

Installing lifts at any station on the Underground poses many challenges to the engineers that are involved in the upgrade.

There needs to be a balance between trying to get the work done safely and on time and trying to keep the disruption to the passengers to a minimum.

Trying to install the lifts on the island platforms at Golders Green was even more of a challenge as one of the platforms is very narrow.

Golders Green station is home to five Underground platforms, of which only four are open to passengers.

The first platform, normally only used by London Underground employees for access, was upgraded by Tube Lines and opened to the public.

This meant that it was possible to keep three out of the five platforms open during the duration of the works.

The station therefore never needed to be closed to passengers and a full timetabled service was running all the way through.

With an innovative way of working, Tube Lines has set a new standard for step free access design on a tube station.

In other step free access projects, Tube Lines used glass cladding to house lift shafts.

With Golders Green, steel cladding was introduced which has proved to be much more effective than glass.

For one, there is less of a risk of the steel shattering as it is being installed and it can therefore be installed with greater speed reducing the overall time to complete the project.

As this was the first time a lift had been installed between two island platforms with work carried out while the track current was live, there were very specific safety issues that needed to be addressed.

To manage the works safely, 52 contiguous piles - each 12 metres deep - were used to create a retaining structure to support the live track and allow excavation to continue during traffic hours.

There was also the question of where to place the lifts as space was limited at the station.

To overcome this problem a rarely used stairwell on the fourth and fifth platforms was demolished to house one of the lift shafts.

The second lift shaft was constructed on platforms two and three, which is also an island platform.

To provide access to this lift at ticket office level, a new access tunnel had to be designed and constructed.

Cuneyt Atacan, Project Manager at Tube Lines said: "The installation of the lifts at Golders Green was a big and complex project".

"Once the lift shafts were built they were positioned into place using a 250ft crane which lifted the lifts over the station roof".

"We are happy with the final result and hope that the passengers feel the benefits that the lifts bring each time they use the station.

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