Client: Network Rail
Project name: Great Eastern OLE Renewals – overhead contact line system for the UK
Partner(s): –
Year of completion: 2022
In 2006, Network Rail decided to modernise the Great Eastern Route (route east of London) to increase the reliability of the infrastructure, especially in view of the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics. We developed, planned, and delivered a new overhead contact line system that became known as GEFF (Great Eastern Furrer+Frey). This project covered 260 kilometres of track and lasted a total of 15 years, from 2007 to 2022.
The project comprised the renewal of the overhead contact line between London Liverpool Street and Chelmsford/Southend-on-Sea, which was over 60 years old. The existing fixed termination overhead contact line was replaced by an automatically tensioned system based on our FL 200/260 system. This also affected numerous junctions such as Bethnal Green, Stratford, Ilford, Romford, Gidea Park, and Shenfield. The project was one of the most complex overhead contact line renewal projects ever completed in the UK.
Key data:
- Over 5,000 steady arms installed
- 1,500 different overhead contact line components
- 1,000 new foundations
- 650 new single masts and 170 booms
- 100 section insulators
- 60 planning sections
