Barbican Living
Crossrail
Crossrail is a plan to build two new train routes across London, mainly underground. Line 1 would run roughly east-west from Maidenhead to Shenfield. Line 2 would run roughly north-south between Victoria and King's Cross, Line 1 will run under the Barbican between Farringdon Station and Liverpool Street Station. The existing stations will be substantially rebuilt and extended. Work is expected to start soon and is expected to take till 2012, with passenger services starting in 2013. For full and up to date details look at Crossrail's site on www.crossrail.co.uk .
When the crossrail idea was first resurrected a few years ago, there were plans to have a crossover cavern somewhere under the Barbican. This would be a point at which trains could move onto another line, and it would involve a much larger structure than just the normal tunnelling. The Barbican representatives and the City of London made strenuous representations about this, and I understand it is now not planned to have a crossover under the Barbican (or even in the City) but this is only what I have been told and you need to check the website for details.
I understand that the tunnels will have to go under the existing Metropolitan & District Lines so they're going to be a considerable distance down. There shouldn't be any more reason why we will notice them than we do tube lines which run everywhere.
There will be excavation work, demolition of buildings, and a lot of taking away of material. There was talk in the past of various areas near the Barbican being put aside for storage and worksites, such as one side of Aldersgate Street. Farringdon station will be extended and there will probably be an an outlet or a station between Long Lane and Carthusian Street. Huge city towers get demolished and rebuilt without seriously inconveniencing everybody, so I don't see why this should all be a huge problem for us.
I don't know any of the official or technical details, for which you should look at the crossrail website.
