In preparation for the introduction of the new S7 rolling stock London Underground appointed Emico to carry out the design and build for the new independent DC traction supplies from Earls Court Sub-station to Lillie Bridge Depot. The new trains will be stabled at Lillie Bridge Depot close to Earls Court. The DC traction power for the Depot was previously derived from the District main line between Barons Court and Earls Court. This arrangement was not suitable as it did not provide an independent traction supply for the depot required to allow stabling and preparation of the new trains.

Therefore London Underground’s SUP DC Power team appointed Emico to provide for the new DC traction power supply configuration and to implement the necessary modification and reinforcement of the existing DC traction power system within the Lillie Bridge Depot.

The project required:

• Provision of new DC traction supplies from the EDF
• Earls Court traction substation to Lillie Bridge Depot
• Re-sectionalisation of the Depot DC traction system
• Design and build of five Track Isolating Switches (TIS) to support re-sectionalisation
• DC traction cabling and routing with modifications to conductor rail continuity cables
• Reinforcement of Earthing and Bonding system
• Traction Earth Fault Detection works.

The works were arranged around two 52 hour Possessions, with additional activities being undertaken during Specified Areas, Engineering Hours and Traffic Hours working arrangements, all programmed over a very compressed time-frame.

This meant that Emico, acting as the Principal (Tier 1) Contractor, had to respond to the challenge of completing an approved design, arranging approvals for custom-designed cable racking and J- hangers for the cable route management system and finding an innovative method of pulling over 5km of power and earth cables, all within an extremely ambitious time-frame of less than six months. All this whilst the Depot remained open for business and at full working capacity for the existing fleet.

Undertaking the entire design in-house, Emico put to work a project team with extensive DC power and London Underground experience. Having the technical expertise was a good start but building effective and productive working relationships with a client team who, themselves, were under severe pressures with the imposed programme constraints, proved to be the key to getting the installation under way. The works were completed 3 days ahead of schedule and on budget.