Empowering regeneration at capital landmark

Battersea Power Station – Northern Line Extension

London, UK

A £1.2bn extension of one of London’s key underground lines is allowing the most ambitious regeneration project in the capital for decades to transform 560 acres of poorly connected but prime urban brownfield land around one of the city’s most recognisable icons.

The Northern Line Extension (NLE) has a business case benefit:cost ‘value for money’ ratio of 8:1 – transforming connections and supporting local area regeneration.

The economic benefit of the Northern Line Extension over the next 60 years is predicted to be £6-7bn.

The NLE project includes two new Zone 1 Underground stations, Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station complete with structurally integrated over station developments.

20,000 new homes and over 25,000 jobs will be created across the wider Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea (VNEB) opportunity area as a result of the underground extension.

Challenge

The redevelopment of Battersea Power Station will see this vast isolated 42-acre former industrial site transformed into a vibrant community of more than 8 million ft² of new mixed use development comprising apartments, shops, bars and restaurants, offices, leisure and event space, combined with more than 19 acres of public space.

The £9bn Battersea Power Station regeneration project will see the creation of the capital’s most eagerly anticipated mixed-use development, serviced by a Zone 1 extension to the London Underground’s Northern Line and the restoration of the Grade II* listed former power station.

Buro Happold continues to play an important role in much of the mammoth eight-phase project, providing integrated consulting for a project that is incorporating a range of new buildings by some of the world’s leading architects. As well as providing multi-disciplinary engineering solutions for the restoration of the Power Station, our experts are also playing a critical role in a range of building and infrastructure schemes across many of the site’s other phases under construction as well as being key consultants on the strategic masterplan for the future phases.

Despite its location beside the River Thames, close to Westminster and the heart of the capital, one of the biggest challenges to realising the development ambition at this scale of viable density was to ensure adequate mass transit infrastructure was in place to connect this vast new neighbourhood to the rest of the city.

Solution

This was achieved by extending the Northern Line from Kennington to Battersea and the construction of two new underground stations – Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station.

The challenge of locating the stations drew on our experience with effective interchange and creative placemaking and public realm integration. Our team played a significant role in the ongoing success of this project for our client, Transport for London (TfL), particularly during the critical station planning and design stage, leading to the successful first-time approval of the Transport Works Act Order by the Secretary of State for Transport in 2014.

In parallel with helping TfL realise their vision of an extended tube line, Buro Happold worked with Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC) on overcoming many of the engineering challenges posed by the project, including successfully integrating the structure of the new underground station with the new development above it.

To help both the station and development proceed in parallel without impacting on programme, cost or construction workspace, our teams collaborated closely with the NLE construction team within an integrated digital BIM environment. Close co-operation between design and construction teams ensured common approaches to analysis and design were undertaken, clashes avoided and that design solutions to maximise commercial space, optimise operationally efficient environments and enhance passenger experience in the station were protected.

The new underground terminal station is located in the heart of Phase 3 of the Battersea Power Station development. Another major element within this phase is Electric Boulevard – a vibrant new high street framed by a pair of new landmark residential developments designed by two of the world’s best known architecture studios – Foster + Partners and Gehry Partners

The ambitious scheme saw our experts working alongside tunnelling specialists Halcrow Engineering (now part of Jacobs) and subsequently Mott MacDonald, with JV Contractors Ferrovial Agroman/Laing O’Rourke.

Value

The dramatic high-rise skyline and improved riverside connectivity of the wider VNEB area underline the value that the NLE brings to this major regeneration as new urban quarters are forming. It also underlines the benefits of a funding vision driven around an innovative mix of Tax Incremental Funding and developer S106 payments.

The ongoing success of the Battersea Power Station and NLE project has been brought about through a shared vision and commitment by TfL and BPSDC. Buro Happold’s multidisciplinary teams of experts have provided integrated engineering design solutions to allow this vision to become a reality.

The extended Northern Line opened to the public in autumn 2021.