ICE London Civil Engineering Awards 2013
Transport for London 2012 Games and the Olympic/Paralympic Route Network (Design & Implementation)
Design & Build Engineer: Transport for London
Client: Olympic Delivery Authority
Programme Manager London 2012: Network Rail
Network Delivery & Development Director: Highways Agency
Programme Manager: Transport for London
Designer of Route Network: Parsons Brinkerhoff
Civils Contractor: Ringway Jacobs
Civils Contractor: Enterprise Mouchel
Civils Contractor: Amey
All images © ODA
In 2010, TfL was tasked by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to design, build and operate the Olympic and Paralympic Route Networks (ORN/PRN), ensuring it met ambitious journey time targets for c25,000 Games Family vehicles, whilst having minimal impact on London’s 23m daily trips. It was also key that this had as little impact on London, both before and during the Games.
The ORN/PRN was designed and built by an integrated partnership team, created and led by TfL, and involving a co-located team of designers, contractors and the client, providing complementary skills, flexibility and resilience. Built and dismantled over very tight timelines, the ORN/PRN required the utmost in coordination and logistics throughout 18 London boroughs in excess of 100,000 construction hours, involving over 2000 people (including over half the country’s road-marking gangs, 60 miles of road marking tape, 56 miles of paint, 1200 Olympic rings, c.5000 ‘peel off’ signs, and over 5000 water-filled barriers. Over three nights from 19-22 July, 128 minor junction alterations were implemented and 43 miles of Games Lanes were activated, ready for the start of ORN/PRN operations on 25 July. This was all achieved alongside the placement and removal of measures for all Road Events and the doubling of emergency response resources during Games time.
The operation of the ORN/PRN proved an equal challenge. While an extensive communications strategy and embargo on planned works, coupled with the summer holidays, reduced background traffic on the network, TfL also devised a suite of tools to actively manage the road network. This involved upgrading a significant number of traffic signals to Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique (SCOOT) control and making strategic changes to over 1,300 sets of signals to help protect the ORN/PRN and manage traffic flowing towards it, requiring an enormous amount of modelling and testing before being progressively delivered before the Games.
24/7 real-time operational management from the London Street Traffic Control Centre (LSTCC) meant that Games Lanes were switched on only when absolutely necessary (c.40% of the time), informing the public of changes utilising Variable Message Signs (VMS) deployed across the network, and conducting effective network monitoring to determine Games Family performance on an hourly basis. Enforcement of the network also played an important role, with TfL leading the coordination of seventeen traffic authorities and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to clear obstructions, securing a 98% compliance rate.
The effective planning and operation of the road network was only made possible with the availability of high quality and accurate information in the ‘Games Playbook’, a comprehensive operational picture of London’s road network that was able to display the interdependencies between competing events on the network.
The successful build of the ORN/PRN and the innovative use of traffic management meant that no athlete or official was late for an event because of transport issues. During the Olympics, journey time reliability exceeded its target of 95% for Games Family vehicles. Journey times on the ORN were 30% quicker and serious and severe disruption across London was down 20% compared to normal. Similarly successful operation of the PRN secured a journey time reliability of 97.8%.
The statistics are clear evidence of the success in building, operating and managing the road network during the 2012 Games. However, it was the world witnessing that London and its transport system can, and did, deliver one of the most successful Games ever that leaves a lasting legacy for the Capital.
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