Luton Direct Air to Rail Transit (DART)

Luton, UK

Project synopsis

Lead designer for the whole scheme, designs including the Gateway Bridge, a 310m long viaduct and a 200m long-buried box structure

Contractor

VolkerFitzpatrick-Kier JV

End client

London Luton Airport

Tony Gee is undertaking the detailed design of all building and civil engineering works on this £225m mass passenger transit system, connecting Luton Airport and Luton Parkway rail station, on behalf of the VolkerFitzpatrick-Kier Joint Venture.

The DART will be a fully-automated, cable-pulled, driverless system, providing frequent and reliable transfers between the station and terminal, in under four minutes.

The scheme includes:

• Luton DART Parkway and Luton DART terminal stations
• Gateway Bridge, over Airport Way
• A viaduct, leading out from Luton DART Parkway Station
• Tunnel and approaches to the airport terminal
• Maintenance area

The new stations have been designed in conjunction with our design sub-consultants RPS and Hewson. Parkway Station is connected to an eight-span continuous steel and reinforced concrete viaduct which in turn connects to an iconic Gateway Bridge over the main access road, Airport Way. This 72m span superstructure comprises a variable depth spine truss with a reinforced concrete composite deck slab.

The highly constrained track alignment traverses a section of cut and fill earthworks and includes ancillary structures before entering a 346m long trough and reinforced concrete tunnel. This was constructed using cut and cover techniques under the existing main taxiway and connects to the new terminal station.