Description of Works

Over the past decade, the City of London Corporation has been working to improve Bank Junction, one of the busiest junctions in the City.

As well as being home to historic buildings such as Mansion House and the Bank of England, the junction sits at the heart of the City’s financial district, which attracts thousands of people to its offices every day. And, right underneath the junction is the sprawling Bank Tube station, which contributes to making the area one of the busiest commuter locations in the UK.

High numbers of pedestrians, cyclists, buses and taxis converge at Bank Junction, creating an environment that can be congested, polluted and unsafe. This is why the Corporation decided to implement a plan that, once finished, would see conditions vastly improved for all road users.

The final and most ambitious phase of the works started in 2020, when the Corporation took the bold decision to dramatically reduce the number of vehicles that could use it, making the junction far more pedestrian and cycle friendly.

Delivering Innovation

Since October 2022, FM Conway has been working to remodel the junction. New, wider pavements and traffic-free areas have been laid to create a much more pedestrian-friendly environment, and the main carriageway has been made narrower and simpler, to make it easier for road users to get into the right position on the road. There are also fewer places where vehicles can turn, to reduce the risk of collisions.

The pedestrian areas have been paved with York stone and granite setts, giving a high-quality finish that matches the surrounding buildings, and FM Conway has also put in seats, planted trees and installed sustainable drainage solutions (SuDS), which use natural methods to keep surface water out of the overloaded sewer network.

Challenges and Solutions

One physical challenge the team had to deal with was the Tube station, whose structure is only just below the road surface. “We were very restricted in terms of the weight of machines we could use when we were taking up the road surface and laying the new paving,” explains FM Conway’s Senior Contracts Manager, Daniel Thomas.

Removing the road construction also exposed some amendments that were made to the Tube station in the 1960s and 70s but had not been recorded – such as the power supply to some of the traffic signals running through scaffold tube from the station. “We were uncovering things as we were going that weren’t planned for, which was quite challenging from a programming point of view,” says Daniel. “We were good at being flexible and pivoting.”

Outcomes

The ‘All Change at Bank’ project has been a huge success, seeing the most significant change taking place at Bank Junction in over a century.

“Over the past two years, FM Conway have constructed the City’s design to a very high standard. It is testament to the good working relationship between the City and FM Conway that the work has progressed effectively and in line with the City’s overall phasing, traffic management design and expectations. We hope the public will enjoy spending time at Bank for years to come, and I would encourage visitors to the City to pass through the junction to see for themselves.” The City of London’s Senior Project Engineer, Ben Bishop.