Brendan Nee's Website Archive Sept 2006
This not my current website, but an old version put up to demonstrate how my web design skills have evolved.

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Visual

6.27.2006

Channel Tunnel Rail Link

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) is a pretty amazing project. Here are some project pictures.

Scale Model of St Pancras Station from the back, with the new deck extension in the foreground
Aerial View of St Pancras (left) and Kings Cross (right) station. The CTRL work is on St Pancras Station and the deck extension behind it. Later, the area between the two will be developed into Kings Cross Central, a large public plaza and mixed use development.
Rendering of the interior of St Pancras after renovations. The glass ceiling will be restored and it should be pretty great. The only trains to use the Barlow shed will be Eurostar trains to Brussels and Paris.
View of St Pancras. The British Library is on the left.
The Eurostar trains will enter a tunnel shortly after leaving St Pancras which will take them under London.
Platform Level, St Pancras. The undercroft has been exposed and will now be an international departures lounge and ticketing. It used to be storage for beer.
Rear Entrance, St Pancras. This will be the entrance for passengers using Midland Mainline trains and Thameslink. Connections to the six tube lines that intersect at Kings Cross St Pancras will be via the escalator at the corner.
Rear Entrance, St Pancras.

6.26.2006

Fire

There was an explosion near my work today. It was at a construction site across the street from Kings Cross, (not my construction site). I just missed the traffic impacts on my train ride in as all trains were cancelled going into Kings Cross, but I made it in with no problems. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5117264.stm

6.15.2006

Mexican in London?

I've been missing Mexican food. London has an extremely limited and poor selection of bland Mexican places, and at least in the major grocery stores, limited mexican ingredients. (The only Tortilla chips I found at Tesco were cool ranch flavoured!)

Lindsay Fincher has described the mexican food scene in London better than I can. Hopefully I'll find a mexican grocery store somewhere.

6.13.2006

Green City

London has an amazing number of parks. Much of London is modeled around the "garden square" plan where a group of townhouses cluster around a private garden. All residents get a key to these private parks. This weekend was the "open gardens" weekend where many of these privately held parks were open to the public, along with wine tasting and other events. I took advantage of this and visited some of the best private squares in Belgravia, Kensington, and Chelsea. Its interesting to note how the addressing system works around these garden squares. Even townhouses not directly facing a square that seem to be on a side street are given addresses such as "78 Eaton Square". This makes finding a specific address a little challenging as it could be near the square, or on one of the side streets on any side.

I also took in some of London's larger public parks. Londoners were out in force with every tree having at least one group of picnickers under it in Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, and Regent's Park.


The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park. The trees make an interesting line.

Trees in St James Park, Londoners enjoying a nice day

The City and Canary Wharf as seen from Hampstead Heath

6.10.2006

Summer in London

London has been great thus far. This week I went to a networking event for web/IT individuals in Canary Wharf, took a tour of South Kensington, explored the Swiss Chalet area, and got to go on the project site at St Pancras.




My apartment near Hornsey Railway station is very nice, with a balcony and floor to ceiling windows. It gets light out at 4:45 AM, and by 5 AM the sun is clearly visible in the sky. This is an hour sooner than San Francisco, but really in Berkeley the sun rose much later, with the Berkeley hills in the way. There is a canal outside (and an active rail line).

I can take the tube (6 stops) or the overland rail (3 stops) to work. The office I work in is located at the project site (Kings Cross / St Pancras), and is very convenient to where I live.



The Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) project is to connect the Channel tunnel to central London via tunnel and high speed exclusive right-of-way. The project is about 90% complete, so all of the design work has been completed. I'm working with the Project Controls team to measure the progress and identify areas which need attention on the section of the project at St Pancras Station. Its a pretty huge project, and its scheduled to be complete late 2007.


The upgraded ticket hall at the St Pancras tube station



The tower in front of St Pancras Station



The platform in the completed section of the expanded St Pancras terminal, temporary home to the Midland Mainline



Outside the new section of the St Pancras Station



The Barlow Shed under construction and St Pancras chambers



The new platform, with the old section and St Pancras chambers in the background. Eurostar trains will span this entire distance.



St Pancras station was named for St Pancras church. When it was built over the graveyard, the bodies were removed and the headstones relocated in a line.



Headstones placed around the trunk of the Hardy Tree



 Other Sites By Brendan

picturetheCity.com

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