Safeguarding London Underground: Advanced Monitoring for K1 Knightsbridge Development
The K1 development is a 28,000m2 scheme to transform the end of Sloane Street in the Knightsbridge Estate.
Summary of Works
Client: Chelsfield Partners LLP
Structural Engineer: Waterman Structures
Start Date: End of 2016
Completion Date: 2020
Plans include seven flagship retail units, luxury residential space and offices, and fronting on to the Harvey Nichols department store, One Hyde Park and the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Hotel.
The site was occupied by a mix of dated offices and a small number of retail and residential units, which have since been demolished for the new scheme. The listed building on the southeast corner remains and the Edwardian facades on the main streets have been retained, fronting a new superstructure.
System
Working with the structural engineers, Waterman Structures Ltd, ITM Monitoring, now SOCOTEC Monitoring UK Ltd, is providing automated and manual monitoring systems to review the effect of construction on the London Underground Piccadilly Line platform and running tunnels, escalator trusses and any other LU assets throughout the Knightsbridge tube station, including the disused areas such as lift and escalator shafts. Construction of this new superstructure, with its three-storey basement, also requires the monitoring of any effects of the deep excavation on nearby infrastructure.
Within the platforms and running tunnels of the Piccadilly line, ITM installed seven Automated Total Stations (ATS) to monitor 3-D global movement of the tunnel and track geometry. Once data is collected and verified by ITM’s StarAdjust software, it is uploaded to ITM Monitoring’s trademarked data visualisation software, Calyx OMSTM.
Furthermore, two of the six escalator trusses are being continually monitored for vertical movement by longitudinal electrolevel beam strings installed the full-length of the escalator shaft and lateral beams measuring the axial rotation of the trusses. This automated system collects data on an hourly basis and is transmitted to Calyx OMSTM for review back at head office by our in-house engineers and client team.
ITM is maintaining the equipment and data provision on a monthly basis until the construction is completed in 2020, and the data provided is vital in safeguarding the LUL tunnels and assets, local buildings and the people living, working and shopping in the area.
