Sprayed concrete lining versus traditional hand-mining at Bank station upgrade, London, UK

Three new adits were required between existing underground railway platform tunnels on the Bank station capacity upgrade project in London, UK. Normally they would have been built by traditional hand-mining techniques with temporary support from within the platform tunnels. An innovative solution, involving a mechanised sprayed concrete lining with an optimised external support system, was developed as an alternative for two of the adits. Compared to hand-mining it provided greater working space, minimised hand excavation and manual handling, kept the railway operational and reduced the programme and costs.