Super subterranean hub: updating King's Cross St Pancras

An £810 million, 10-year project to update London's oldest and busiest underground railway station was completed in 2010. Enabled by the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996, the redevelopment of King's Cross St Pancras station has doubled its capacity and provided step-free access to all platforms. This paper focuses on the design and construction of the spacious northern ticket hall and associated access tunnels to the three deepest Tube lines. Construction of the 21 m deep excavations and 300 m of tunnels had to be undertaken with great care to minimise disruption to what is now a state-of-the-art national and international transport hub.