Construction of London Underground's £1Bn Northern Line extension from Kennington to Battersea via Nine Elms will start next year following the go ahead from Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.
The go ahead follows news that Wandsworth Council has approved Vinci St. Modwen's £2Bn plans to redevelop New Covent Garden Market which will be served by the extension.
Work on the Northern Line extension will start as soon as spring next year, with joint venture Ferrovial Agroman Laing O'Rourke set to construct over three miles of new tunnels and brand new stations at Nine Elms and Battersea.
During construction the project will create around 1000 jobs. Once complete by 2020, the extension will support 24,000 jobs and over 18,000 new homes in the Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Battersea area, providing journey times of just under 15 minutes to the West End and the City.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “I am delighted we can confirm that early next year the spades will be hitting the ground for the creation of the Northern line extension.”
London Underground managing director Mike Brown added: “This vital new part of the Underground network will support and enable growth in an area that is rapidly developing.”
A new station to be built at Nine Elms will serve other new developments such as the US Embassy and the £2Bn redevelopment of New Covent Garden Market. This major, 10 year multi-phased project will deliver one of the largest schemes in London's Nine Elms regeneration area, creating over 500,000 sq ft of new market facilities and three high quality residential neighbourhoods.
These neighbourhoods will comprise of approximately 3000 new homes, 135,000 sq ft of office space and 100,000 sq ft of retail, leisure and new community facilities, including shops, cafés and restaurants.
Vinci St. Modwen is expected to start work on site in spring to upgrade utilities and other infrastructure in preparation for the construction phase to get fully under way in 2016.
