'Save Our Scrubs' web site launched

Link to web site

"Save our Scrubs is a campaign that aims to ensure that all development around Wormwood Scrubs fully respects the present character of the Scrubs as a a common land for the enjoyment and recreation of all Londoners, a diverse habitat, a managed wilderness and a series of local nature reserves.

"The specific development pressures at the Old Oak interchange in the Northwest of the Scrubs - especially HS2, Crossrail and the London Overground - all have the potential to seriously disrupt Wormwood Scrubs."

The Guardian: "HS2: fears over rising cost dismissed by government"

Link to web site

"The government has dismissed reports that the cost of HS2, the high-speed rail project, will escalate to a politically unacceptable £73bn, saying the figures were 'completely misleading'.

"The figure is being discussed privately by Treasury insiders, according to the Financial Times. It comes days after the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA), a free-market thinktank, warned the project could nearly double in cost to £80bn and should be scrapped.

"Officially the scheme, which will build a high-speed network linking London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds by 2033, will cost £42.6bn – already a rise of almost £10bn from the original figure when HS2 was approved in early 2012. Trains will cost another £7bn, and these figures are all at 2011 prices."

Crossrail, at Stepney Green and Paddington

Ealing Gazette

Brent & Kilburn Times: "Residents stage protest over [Old Oak Common Lane] incinerator plans"

Link to web site

"Residents opposing controversial plans for a giant incinerator in Harlesden turned out in force to meet [Ealing] council planning chiefs on Saturday.

"Up to 80 people gathered by Willesden Freight Terminal on Channel Gate Road where Clean Power Properties want to install the incinerator that has raised fears over increased traffic flow and air pollution.

" 'It went really well, there was a huge turnout from Brent and Ealing,' said Cllr Zaffar Van Kalwala who represents Stonebridge Ward."

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Wembley Matters web site:

Brent & Kilburn Times: Planned Old Oak Waste Incinerator

The Rail Engineer: "Crossrail Thames Tunnels"

Link to web site

"Whilst the Crossrail TBMs are not as big as the largest yet, which was over 19 metres in diameter and drove a tunnel in St Petersburg, Russia, they are massive. Each is over 100 metres long and weighs about 1,000 tonnes.

"They are operated by 20 people, 12 on board the TBM and eight in the tunnel behind it. Typically a rate of 100 metres per week is being achieved on the Crossrail tunnels, with a total of eight machines being needed to create the 42km of rail tunnels on the whole project. TBMs Phyllis and Ada, working on the western tunnels, have peaked at speeds of around 215 metres per week."

"... Today’s TBMs are an amazing contrast with the techniques used by Brunel for the first Thames tunnel, not far away from the current site."

Park Royal / Harlesden Waste Incinerator: To be decided by Ealing Council Planning Committee on Wed. 14 August

Ealing planning application: PP/2012/3267

Park Royal / Harlesden Waste Incinerator

Department for Transport: The Cunning Plan

Transport for Growth summary

BBC: "Crossrail: Where is it in the list of 'big digs'?"

Link to web site

"The tunnelling for Crossrail, London's new east-west rail network, is now in its most intense phase - and the scale of the engineering challenge is as jaw-dropping as the cost is eye-watering.

"The tourists and shoppers in Red Lion Street in central London can have little idea that 30m under their feet something is going on, although people in buildings with deep foundations may feel a curious tingle.

"Two tunnel boring machines (TBMs), named Phyllis and Ada, are worming their way through the earth. Each one is the length of 14 London buses and weighs 1,000 tonnes.

"A computer display in Phyllis's control cabin shows the machine is 18mm below where she should be and 27mm too far to the left. But that's all within the design's tolerance of 50mm."