Crossrail: The biggest construction project in Europe finds 14th Century Burial Ground

Crossrail is arguably the biggest ongoing construction project in Europe. Its cost is budgeted at £14.8 billion, and involves construction of a 118 kilometre rail line and 42km of underground lines. It engages 5 Tunnel Boring Machines and will remove six million tonnes of ground material. It is being excavated below London and is expected to result in eight new underground stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, Canary Wharf and Woolwich, and a new surface station will also be constructed at Custom House.  A map of the project is available here. It will serve 200 million people per year.

Crossrail will also make engineering history for another reason: At least two-thirds of all Crossrail excavated material, will be used to create the new nature reserve at Wallasea Island, creating Europe’s largest man-made coastal reserve.

Just last week, construction for Crossrail revealed a 14^th Century Burial Ground that was not identified earlier and that apparently opened during the Black Death Plague in 1348.  More information about this important historical finding is available here.

Additional information about crossrail can be found in this Huffington Post article.

Sources: Crossrail.co.uk, Huffington Post