Crossrail is delivering the Elizabeth line which is due to open in central London from 2018. The new railway includes 42km of tunnels underneath the city.

In sensitive sections of the tunnel network, noise and vibration impacts from the operating railway had to be minimised. The solution was a high density floating track slab (FTS), produced using MagnaDense concrete with a density of 3.6 t/m3.

​The FTS has been used for sections of track between Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street stations, below the Barbican, to help reduce the impact of noise and vibration on above-ground infrastructure. Additionally, due to the gauge of the track, the volume available for concrete was limited. It was evident a space saving resolution was required.

This webinar had a panel of experts who worked on this challenging aspect of the Crossrail project. They discuss the design challenges and efforts surrounding the development of the concrete solution. As the story unfolds it demonstrates how important dense concrete was to achieving the solution and why MagnaDense was identified as the chosen as the aggregate.
The full webinar can be viewed here:

There is also a brief blog on the ICE website outlining the solution achieved – Solutions with heavyweight concrete