On 28 Jun, 14:53, John B wrote:
On 28 Jun, 14:27, kytelly wrote:

For the next five years everything in political terms is governed by
the olympic timetable. I would be very surprised if there is a serious
start on Crossrail till its over.

I had thought this - but someone clever (possibly on u.t.l/u.r)
recently pointed out to me that one of the few things the Olympics
*won't* need in civil engineering terms is skilled, specialised
tunnellers and customised, specialised boring machines. Therefore,
these will be among the few resources within the building market that
*aren't* at a massive premium during the lead-up to 2012.

If my understanding of the construction process is right, and if
Crossrail building were to start next year, then the main work for
about the first five years would be the tunnelling. Fit-out and
surface construction would then kick off around 2013: conveniently in
time to use all the builders freed up by the completion (/abandonment,
depending on your levels of cynicism) of Olympic works.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot orgwww.johnband.org/blog

Hmm I take your point but I think we're both feeling around in the
dark a bit here as neither of us are civil engineers. I would suggest
that the actual tunneling is but one part of building a tunnel;
Design, project management and proffessional services would have a lot
of overlap with other big projects. I'm not saying it wouldnt be
possible but the way this country seems to work would rule out two
mega civil projects running concurrently.