The East London Line is a former London Underground route which has now been incorporated into the London Overground line which runs north to south through the East End, Docklands and South areas of London. After operating for nearly 75 years as part of the Underground network, the line closed in December 2007 for an extensive refurbishment and expansion project, reopening as part of the Overground network in December 2012. As part of these expansion works, new maintenance facilities where constructed in New Cross Gate, South East London.
In June 2008, Balfour Beatty - Carillion Joint Venture approached Sharpfibre, the UK’s leading specialist fire protection contractor to deliver the complete fire protection and interiors solution for the Wheel Lathe and Heavy Cleaning depot and Maintenance Facility building. The new Wheel Lathe and Heavy Clean depot houses specialist engineering equipment and a heavy manual cleaning workshop. The new Maintenance Facility Building houses a maintenance hall containing inspection pits plus associated stores and workshops. Outside of the maintenance hall is 4,500m² of floor area on four levels containing offices and staff welfare facilities.
Having gone through the competitive tender process, Sharpfibre was selected based on its proven expertise in dealing with complex programme driven projects, working with both the design and construction teams identifying areas where costs and time can be removed through engineered solutions. With the internal finishes very closely linked into the fire protection of the structural steel frame and building structure, Sharpfibre was ideally placed to design and install one system satisfying the architect’s requirements fully. Examples of this included the removal of intumescent coatings which would have then been covered with an aesthetic plasterboard casing and replacing with a compatible fire resistant system that can then be finished by the paint and decorating trades. Installing both the passive fire protection as well as the interior finishes ensured that the client had a single point of responsibility, guaranteeing fire integrity, insulation performance and acoustics all under one contractor.
Sharpfibre worked closely with Balfour Beatty - Carillion and the other trade contractors, in order to help keep this project on programme. Construction and handover was completed in March 2010 in time for the new train service to commence in May 2010.