Construction &
Engineering Contact

[ Docklands Light Railway · 2010 – 2023 ]

Slab track renewals on a driverless, third-rail railway

My role: systems engineering, tender and engineering management, then leading renewals delivery.

Programme
DLR track renewals
Location
London Docklands
Role
Engineering & delivery roles
Period
2010 – 2023

Challenge

Slab track with short engineering hours and no margin for a late handback. S&C and baseplate renewals designed, sequenced and built in small windows, with the right baseplate system for each location.

What I did

Systems engineering on the Crossrail–DLR interface at Serco Docklands; tender and engineering management on renewals with Carillion and Pod-Trak; later leading renewals delivery from the contractor side. New turnouts and crossovers, Delkor, Vanguard and Vipa baseplate systems, slab built top-down and bottom-up, bolt and baseplate renewals.

Outcome

Thirteen years of DLR slab-track work, from writing the method to leading the team delivering it. Slab track is a specialism, not a line on a CV.

RAIL FIXING ASSEMBLY ON SLAB · SECTION · SCALE 1:460E1 / 113A RAILRAIL CLIP · TOE LOADON RAIL FOOTRAIL PAD 6 mmCAST BASEPLATE · 1:20 CANTRESILIENT PAD 10 mmGROUT PAD 25–30 mmLINE AND LEVEL SET HEREM24 NUT · WASHERINSULATING TOP-HATM24 STUD IN DRILLED HOLERESIN ANCHORSTRUCTURAL SLABVIADUCT DECK172HOLDING-DOWN CENTRES 300PLAN · SCALE 1:5380210RAIL FOOTSLOTTED HOLE ±12 mmLATERAL ADJUSTMENTNOTES1. GAUGE AND CANT SET ON PACKERS BEFORE GROUTING.2. STUD TORQUE TO MANUFACTURER’S FIGURE; RECORD EVERY BOLT ON THE INSPECTION SHEET.3. RENEWALS: CORE OUT, RE-DRILL, RESIN, RE-TORQUE WITHIN ONE ENGINEERING HOURS WINDOW.STH CONSTRUCTION & ENGINEERINGBASEPLATE ON SLAB · HOLDING-DOWN ASSEMBLYILLUSTRATIVE · NOT FOR CONSTRUCTIONDRG STH-DLR-02REV A
Baseplate on slab · plan · illustrative · swipe to see the full drawing →

Personal experience as an employee of Serco Docklands and Pod-Trak, and in later senior contractor roles. STH Construction & Engineering was not the contracting party.

[ Contact ]

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  1. 1 · Email Say what the job is, where, and when you need an answer.
  2. 2 · Call A short call to understand the problem and whether STH is the right fit.
  3. 3 · Scope & fee A written scope, deliverables and fee, agreed before any work starts.