Works
Section 1: Construction and maintenance of scheduled works
8.Section 1(1) authorises the nominated undertaker to construct and maintain the works necessary for Crossrail. The principal works necessary – the so called “scheduled works” – are listed in Schedule 1 and are also shown on the plans and sections deposited with the Crossrail Bill on its introduction.
9.Section 1(2) requires, subject to section 1(3), the scheduled works to be constructed in the lines or situations, and on the levels, shown on the deposited plans and sections. The plans and sections therefore give an indication of where the works will be constructed. Also, if in the case of a station, depot or shaft, the deposited sections show an upper limit, the relevant works must be constructed within that limit.
10.Section 1(3) allows the nominated undertaker to construct or maintain a scheduled work in a different lateral position from that shown on the plans, as long as it is within the area shown for the work on the plans (the “limit of deviation” for the work). This flexibility, and the flexibility provided by sections 1(4) and 1(5), is customary in Acts for railway projects and reflects the fact that some movement may be necessary, for example to avoid hidden obstacles that are only discovered once construction is underway.
11.Section 1(4) allows the nominated undertaker to deviate in respect of works to any extent downwards.
12.Section 1(5) allows the nominated undertaker to deviate in respect of works upwards to an extent of three metres, save in respect of the works identified in section 1(5)(a) where the upward limit of deviation is six metres.
13.However, section 1(6) provides that where an upper limit for a station, depot or shaft is shown on the deposited sections, the power to deviate is subject to that upper limit.
Section 2: Works: further and supplementary provisions
14.Section 2 brings into effect Schedule 2, which contains additional provisions about the works which may be carried out, primarily to facilitate the main effort of construction of the scheduled works.
Section 3: Highways
15.Section 3 brings into effect Schedule 3, which contains provisions dealing with the highway works necessary for Crossrail.
Section 4: Overhead lines
16.Section 4(1) disapplies the normal consents regime established under the Electricity Act 1989 for the installation of overhead electric lines on land that is within the limits of deviation for the scheduled works or the land required for Crossrail (the “limit of land to be acquired or used”). The limits of deviation and the limit of land to be acquired or used taken together are referred to in these Explanatory Notes as “the Act limits”.
17.Section 4(2) brings into effect Schedule 4, which establishes a replacement consents regime for such lines.
18.Section 4(3) provides that once the consent granted under Schedule 4 is revoked or expires, the line to which it relates will revert to being subject to the Electricity Act 1989.
19.Section 4(4) provides that any consent granted under Schedule 4 by the Secretary of State for Transport and the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, acting jointly, may include the grant of deemed planning permission, with or without conditions.
