23 April 2010
Bell Common Refurbishment Complete - March 2010
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The £93m M25 Bell Common Tunnel refurbishment project
has been Highly Commended in the ACE Engineering Excellence
Awards.
Following the success of the M25 Holmesdale Tunnel
Refurbishment, a multidisciplinary Capita Symonds team was
appointed as Costain’s designer for the Highways Agency Early
Contractor Involvement scheme in 2008. The project opened two
months early, under budget, and with an excellent safety
record.
Originally opened in 1984 as part of the M25 North Orbital
Motorway, the Tunnel is approximately 500 metres long and located
in a semi rural location in Epping Forest with a cricket pitch on
the roof.
The scheme included the removal of raised walkways to meet
disability access requirements, improve access for emergency
services and the facilitating of carriageway widening works.
The ventilation was also brought up to current European standards
by the construction of a Saccardo nozzle fan system located at the
tunnel portals to control pollution and smoke in the event of a
fire.
The tunnel has a dimmable lighting system to reduce energy
consumption while other works included installation of passive fire
protection and provision of an Automatic Video Incident Detection
system. There were also a number of environmental issues concerning
ecological management in the adjacent Epping Forest which have been
solved thanks to extensive liaison with the Corporation of
London.