Engineering: Plan and Profile

Next: Automation

Woodley station profile, 1965 Typical cross-section and details, 1971-1973 Soil study, 1967 Grosvenor, 1985
Click on any thumbnail for a full-size image.
Once the planners had settled on a rough map of where trains should go, it was up to the civil engineers to determine exact alignments, both horizontally (plan) and vertically (profile). From the beginning, engineers drafted rough plans, to get a sense of how much the system would cost. As the project progressed, they worked with architects to draft directive drawings for prototypical sections. For the underground portions, engineers conducted more than a thousand test borings, while for the above ground portions they planned aerial bridges as well.